Farming & India & you
Three things to understand what's happening
Happy Tuesday! Yes, I skipped last week. I’ll give you a second to mourn what could have been…Okay, now that we’ve acknowledged it let’s move on. I’m not sure if you’ve heard or not but there are huge protests going on in India right now.
The government has announced some new changes to the agriculture market and farmers feel like they’re getting the short end of the stick. Farmers from all over the country have gathered to make their voices heard. It’s a big deal. Here are three things to get a better understanding of what’s happening.
In this issue
📺 A quick video explainer detailing the three new acts that the farmers are angry about.
🎧 A 20-minute podcast that tells the success story of one farmer.
📰 A quick piece in the New York Times that hits the major bullet points of what’s going on.
Vox explained: India’s huge farmer protests, explained
The Vox explained series always does a great job at giving a quick rundown on important topics all over the world, and this one is no different. If you only have enough time to do one thing from this newsletter, I hope this is it.
It goes over everything that has led to this with the help of some on-the-ground reporting and easy to visualize graphics. While it glosses over the details about the clashes with police that you’ll read in the NYT piece, it gives a good overview of the issue at large.
NPR Up First: India’s Farmer Protest
The Up First podcast from NPR is probably my favorite podcast to listen to every morning. It’s a quick rundown on the biggest issues of the day that goes live every morning. Each episode is typically between 10-15 minutes long, but for something like this the team at NPR did a great job making a 23 minute podcast feel half that long.
This is an interesting story about one farmer who hustled his way into success under the old rules of the agriculture economy. The extremes he has to go through makes it pretty clear that his success is almost impossible to reproduce, especially in a country where 50% of the population is farmers.
New York Times: Why Are Farmers Protesting in India?
The title says it all. This is a quick landing page for all of the other reporting that the NYT has done on this topic. But it cuts straight to the point detailing the conflicts, the new rules that the people are protesting, and who/where many of the protestors are from.
While the information in this piece is obviously important, I find the photojournalism here to be amazing. It adds context by focusing on the actual people on the ground, showing you what those people are going through without needing to tell you. Even if you don’t read the whole thing I recommend just looking at the people in the pictures.
