Sadhguru on 100-day Motorbike Mission to Save Soil: 'I Chose An Option Which Is Dangerous'

Sadhguru is on a mission to raise awareness about the constantly degrading soil quality across the globe. While the organic content of the top soil should be over three percent, Sadhguru revealed that most places do not meet this requirement. In fact, 62 percent of India’s agricultural land has organic content below 0.5 percent, which is close to desertification. And to raise awareness on this, the 65-year-old spiritual leader has embarked on a 100 days journey, where he would cover 30,000 kilometers.

While addressing the issue of soil extinction and engaging with media regarding the same in New Delhi, Sadhguru said, “Soil as an issue has to be separated from other aspects. There is nobody who does not want rich soil. It is just a certain amount of determination from the government and a certain amount of investment in the form of incentives.” He added that one needs to target the small and medium farmers who form 80 percent of the farmers. But occupy 47.3 percent of the land. He also added that most land in India has below one percent organic content while nearly 62 percent of the land has below 0.5 percent, which is almost close to desertification. He adds that it is easy to give incentives to small and medium farmers, while different ways need to be formulated for big farmers.

Sadhguru also added that organic farming is now going big in India. However, he feels that the term is very vague. Instead, he thinks that one needs to categorise the produce according to the percentage of organic content where it is grown in. “Place produce from soil from higher organic content in the higher price bracket, because the nutrition you get from an orange grown in soil with six percent organic content will be equal to 8-10 oranges grown in land with less than one percent organic content.”

He is also trying to push an idea with Tamil Nadu and the Karnataka government. He reasons that now, when children in a big city go out during the peak hour, all he gets to hear is noise, and see vehicles all around and are straight into the traffic which will affect them psychologically. It is also because people do not live and work in the same place, because of unplanned development. He proposes an alternative. Called ‘future cities’, Sadhguru says he is looking forward to encouraging companies to move away from the cities and buy 50 acres of land, at 10 percent of the price. “But, you can only use one acre for construction. Build 50 floors or 100 floors Offices, residences, a little bit of shopping, theatres, school up to 5th standard- everything can be housed here. The remaining 49 percent, you convert into a forest. Farm in this land, you can use some land for that. You’ll lead a healthy life. Children will grow up well.”

When posed with the question of what a layman can do, Sadhguru said, “All of you have a voice, which is very important. What is media- it is a voice. It is very important in a democratic nation. You immediately want to roll up your sleeves, go home and fix your kitchen garden. No, I’ll not give you that satisfaction. We are in 2022. We need policies, that will bring about large-scale transformation. And for that, all of us need to raise our voice.”

Talking about why he chose to travel across 30,000 km on a motorbike, Sadhguru said, “I am a man without any authority over anything. For the last 30 years, I have been talking about this. Everyone has said ‘Sadhguru, what you are talking about is great”, and then going to sleep. I knew I had to do something and I had no instruments of power in my hand. The only way I could do something was to put my life at risk. This is what I did. Now suddenly, they have all woken up and 2.5 billion people have responded in 75 days. The motorcycle worked… Had I taken a flight, it wouldn’t work, I know that very well. You want me to walk- that would kill me. You want me to cycle- that would also kill me. So I chose an option which is dangerous, but doesn’t mean sure death.”

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