Organic food, the ‘natural’ choice

In the last few years, there has been a growing awareness about eating healthy and knowing the source of the food. This has resulted in a rise in the number of people buying organic food thanks to the  weekly markets that are set up in parts of the cities by groups, NGOs and communities, to promote eating organic food.
 
Organic Manna Women’s Help Foundation, an NGO has its stalls at Sunday community markets in Juhu in the morning for two hours. Sangeeta Janumala, chairperson of this foundation, says, “We,  have everything from vegetables, fruits, masala, pulses, laddu, papad, oil and lot more, more like a kirana wala store, but all organic.” Apparently,  carrots, beetroots, red and yellow bell peppers, broccoli, beans, onions and leafy vegetables are the extremely popular with the buyers. This NGO aims, that via these weekly markets it can promote eating organic food.

We Will Help, an NGO that conducts Aarey Tribal Lunch which is conducted to empower Aarey Tribal women, also does its bit to provide fresh vegetables to people. The lunch that is open for all, is conducted at least twice a month, also has vegetables for sale. Cassandra Nazareth, who is associated with this event, shares, “These vegetables are locally grown in the forests of Aarey by the tribal women living there. Apart from the fact that the sale empowers these tribal women monetarily, we, as consumers, also know the source of the stock and hence know that it’s healthy.”  Ridge Gourd, Snake Gourd, fenugreek, drumsticks, pumpkins, cucumbers, brinjals and other few leafy vegetables are usually on sale. Apart from these, seasonal vegetables are also sold.
 
A  parallel effect of this movement is that it has increased the demand of organically grown vegetables and fruits, giving farmers an impetus to engage more in organic farming. Nature’s Gram a Thane-based ‘collective’, has a large group of conscious consumers who buy organic vegetables and fruits; sources fresh organic vegetables from five places-Thane, Palghar, Nagar, Nashik and Pune and oranges from Nagpur while cereal, pulses and grain come from Marathwada and Vidarbha.
 
Vishal Ghodke, Founder, Nature’s Gram, shares, “We source the harvest from 30 odd farmers collectively and the aim is to not only encourage organically grown food but to also push for traditional vegetables like spinach, fenugreek, radish, Indian tomatoes (non hybrid). We also focus on promoting traditional variety of seeds as for this, farmers don’t have to buy seeds from the market.” Organic Manna Women’s Help Foundation, on the other hand,  source their harvest from 300 farmers from across Jalgaon, Devlali, Nashik plus several other remote areas of Maharashtra.
 
Eco-nutritionist Kavita Mukhi’s Seventh Edition of The Farmer’s Market at Bandra has also been seeing a lot of buyers. Rita Vishvakarma, who started buying organic food from this market, shares, “I have been buying organic vegetables since last few months from The Farmer’s Market and I certainly feel good about it. I think there’s a need for more similar markets across the city.”
 
All these groups agree that the response is good and there is slowly, but surely, a rise of the number of people eating organic food. Ghodke, concludes, “In Mumbai, we don’t have several stores that sell organic food. The primary reason is the expensive rent. This is where the masses need to support such weekly markets. If we have more and more market spaces to sell  fresh harvest, it will benefit the organic farmers as well as the consumers.”