Here's Why Organic Food Is Gaining Popularity
A few days back I saw an interesting video on GMO seeds and possibly how it is getting inroads to Indian farmlands. One of the key takeaways from the video was in order to satisfy the need of the population should we let the population eat a cheaper poison (kya sasta zeher kha lena chahiye). This statement moved me a bit and made me think further about yet another fundamental question. A poison that looks like food smells like food tastes like food and if cheaper and easily available will you still call it food? I guess not. Simply, because it's not.
With the emergence of knowledge becoming available to everyone in the form of audio, and video via the internet larger populations are able to figure out the truth about their food.
Now larger populations understand the food they have to eat is not ok. They understand it not only affects their immunity it also damages the delicate balance of nature. However due to lack of availability, lack of authenticity, and high prices still most people are unable to consume pure organic food. As per my informal survey of all the people I have asked about if they would like to eat chemical-fed food vs pure organic food not even one wanted to know to consume chemical- fed one.
Additionally, I also see that even the farmers from around our farm and the farmers with whom I have been interacting almost all understand and do not debate the impact the chemicals have had on the soil over the last few decades.
Our larger part of society always had this understanding that chemical-fed production is not the best thing they have but they didn't have many options. With the increasing popularity of organic vegetables, fruits, and organic pulses the number of offline and online organic food suppliers has been increasing.
Today things are changing awareness has improved manifolds, and the flow of information has improved manifolds. There are several types of research and empirical evidence on how chemical fertilizers have been damaging the soil and even the water sources, and how pesticides and weedicides have been damaging far more than they have ever claimed to.
Also, we have observed among our clients those who have been consuming organic food over time simply do not like conventional ones as often the taste of organic produce is better than the conventional ones. What more a consumer can ask for healthy food with good taste? Taking this cue from the consumers, a lot of farmers have moved to organic methods and found their market via online mediums. With technology and infrastructure in place today even the farmers are making the most of it by supplying their products from one end of the country to the other. As more and more farmers are joining this movement the supply of pure organic produce will keep growing and with no dearth of demand for organic and healthy food the prices will also stabilize.
A lot of farmers like us have established their D2C business models of organic farming and making farming viable again. This is primarily because these organic farmers have understood the process of organic farming and also the nice clientele. These are the new farming generation the atma nirbhar kisan of today that does not depend on MSPs they sell directly and as per their costing and margins.
This is a great development for both the farmers who now get the right worth of the gold they produce on their file and preserve nature and also for those who consume the product as they get authentic unadulterated food often from the source directly and also aid in preserving nature.