It was a suffocatingly hot and muggy Saturday in Mumbai in late June that I found myself sitting behind a vendor table at an Organic Farmers Market, watching farmers unload crates of leafy vegetables, fruit and glass jars of preserves before customers begin to arrive. Unlike the people around me, I’m not a farmer, nor am I from a farming community. I’m a wide-eyed American covered in mosquito bites attempting my first solo travel excursion.
One day while indulging my travel fantasies, I found a farm on a website called Workaway, a platform that connects travelers and host families. As a writer, I was intrigued by the opportunity to ditch my mundane routine and stay with an Indian family. Hot, crazy India seemed like the perfect inverse of cold, quiet Seattle. So, I gave my job a month’s notice, got the necessary vaccines, and flew out for a two-week stay with a farming family before I had enough time to talk myself out of it.
Gathering the the sun dried moringa leaves
I’m seated at the table of Two Brothers Organic Farms, a growing operation in a village about 200 miles southeast of Mumbai called Bhodani. It specializes in dairy products and other unique snacks and remedies, like spicy pickled lemons and the leaves of the superfood, moringa (something I’d never heard of), which they make into a powder and sell by the bag. The chemical-free growth process and sun drying method of their powder is more laborious and takes longer than industrial processing, but it preserves its nutritional integrity.
A few years ago, the two brothers, Satyajit and Ajinkya, both left successful careers in order to take over their family’s farm in rural India, chucking the Indian ideal of making it big in the city and taking a journey back to their roots. They ended up transforming the farm, which has been in the family for generations, into one of the most prominent organic farms in India. Now, they make a menu of different products in the traditional style, despite the higher production costs.
Before I arrived, I didn’t know what to expect. I figured I would learn about the culture, experience an Indian farm, Indian family life, and try some local cuisine. I didn’t anticipate how strongly I would end up resonating with the movement in India that my host family is pioneering.
A Revolution Brewing in Mumbai
The Two Brothers brand has gained an international following for making products organically with traditional methods, in a sea of farms that use pesticides, growth hormones and industrial machinery. It’s one of fourteen vendors that congregate in this spot in Mumbai every Saturday. Today, I am Satyajit’s shadow.
The air begins to buzz as vendors and customers arrive. Deepa Chheda, who owns a small shop nearby supplying organic products like soaps and pantry staples, pops her head in my peripheral and motions me toward her enthusiastically. I stand up, confused, and quickly follow her outside. She tells me to take a breath. Without questioning her, I inhale and exhale and stare at her blankly. “Can’t you smell it?” We’re standing underneath a jasmine tree. “Oh,” I say, laughing. “Yes. The flowers. They’re amazing.”
We get to talking, and she tells me she had the idea to start a farmers market about a year ago. She wanted to give her suppliers the opportunity to sell their fresh produce, which she doesn’t have room for in her store.
Many of these organic ventures are less than a year old. While they come from different places and make different products, they are unified in their dedication to the organic movement. They start their days before sunrise and travel long distances – some of them from more than 150 kilometers – to supply residents of the Indian metropolis with organic produce each week. The group calls themselves “Organic We.” They’re one of the only organic farmers markets in all of Mumbai.
A farmer setting up products from her “food forest”
I took a tour around the small plaza to meet the different farmers as they set up their tables. One woman sells jars of seeds and spices, like cumin powder and flax seeds, which she grows in an organic “food forest.” It’s a garden-like model of farming that mixes different species of plants in the same plot of earth to cultivate healthier soil and in turn, healthier produce.
Another table sells just a few products: juice from a local berry, boxed organic candies, and tea. The young woman named Grusha told me her story. She employs more than a dozen women of a nearby village, with the goal of reviving the community’s nutrition and economic disparity – two birds, one stone. I couldn’t believe she’d only started the initiative a few months ago, considering the progress she’d already made with her branding and packaging, but the projects are still so fresh they don’t have any presence online.
Grusha and her fellow farmers
Another farm I talk to sells different varieties of rice that had nearly been phased out of existence. Their goal is to introduce to the forgotten strains back into the market, which were pushed out in favor of varieties that are easier to grow in mass.
Most of the farm owners maintain other businesses or day-jobs to make ends meet, and are pouring their passion into their farms after hours and on the weekends. Satyajit and Ajinkya are pursuing their operation full time. Their stories are all unique, but they all share the same common goal: to further the organic movement.
While the concept is already mainstream in the West, it’s been slow to catch on in India. Organic We’s band of followers are a dedicated bunch. They vehemently believe in the movement and stalk their fridge with the vendors’ handmade goods each Saturday. But still, that group is only around 60-100 people, and Satyajit says he’d like to see at least 200 or 250 at each week, in order to make the weekly saga of coming to the farmers market profitable for vendors.
They’ve gotten creative with their attempts to engage the community. Deepa spreads word of the market through her network and manages the Organic We social media, reminding followers to visit each Saturday. Satyajit has even ventured out to knock on the doors of residents near the market to tell them to come support the farmers. Still, the turnout rate is not climbing as quickly as Satyajit and Deepa would like, and they’re vying for ideas on how to get the project to gain some momentum.
Roadblocks
We spent a busy weekend in Mumbai. After the market ended, Satyajit, Deepa and I wove through the chaotic city streets to meetings with public relations pros and marketing experts in their homes and offices to get to the bottom of why the attendance of the market has stagnated.
The experts drifted in and out of Hindi and English as they explained the potential reasons that weekly turnout has stagnated at around 100. We conclude that there is a myriad of issues that Organic We and other organic markets in the area are up against.
First of all, organic produce is not as flawless as its competition. It’s often blemished and smaller in size compared to the shiny, robust produce at the supermarket because it’s not genetically modified and chemically treated. It’s exponentially better for you. But if a customer is just going off of face value, organic loses.
Even those who are aware of the trickery of surface aesthetics may still be reluctant to buy organic because of another consumer concern – that the vendor is falsely claiming that the product is organic. How can the consumer really be sure? This was mentioned multiple times by different parties.
Perhaps the most commonly mentioned gripe of all: the price. It’s common knowledge that organic produce is generally more expensive. Nobody wants to pay more money than they must for anything – even if its pennies – especially when the alternative is perceived to be a “lesser” product.
Finally, there is the extra effort associated with attending a farmers market. Working people don’t want to wake up early on a Saturday to attend, so even if a customer is interested in organic, it could be that they only want to do so if it’s convenient.
The pros threw out a few options to try to address these issues and boost attendance: curated Instagram strategy, investing in an ad campaign, even creating an app to facilitate a home delivery service to access the patrons who don’t want to get out of bed on Saturdays. But Satyajit and Deepa are hesitant to go ahead with these ideas. While they want to boost awareness, they’re concerned that such tactics miss the point of the initiative, and in the end, probably won’t be effective. I found myself in agreement.
After talking in circles, debating the effectiveness of various marketing plans, we finally came to the core of the issue. It comes down to the public’s oversight of the value of the product. If something is considered valuable, people suddenly find the time and money that they didn’t have before. Everything else is semantics.
The Root of the Issue
If you don’t know the difference in quality between organic and non-organic and, equally important, the impact that your choice has on the environment and community, it’s understandable why you wouldn’t be interested in paying more for organic food or participating in a farmers market.
It’s true that it takes extra effort to attend. It’s true that the produce is more expensive. But people like Satyajit and Deepa have dedicated their lives to the value of organic farming, and they believe that if others knew what they knew, they’d think it’s worth it, too.
Many don’t realize the value that lies in the marginal difference between the cost of a product from an industrial farm compared to an organic one.
Before coming to the farm, my understanding of organic food was basic. I knew organic produce was made without pesticides and artificial growth stimulants. I had a vague understanding that organic produce is better for the body than non-organic. Even still, I’d often reach for the non-organic option while doing my shopping if the price was less than the organic. I thought organic was ideal, but not always in the budget, a perspective shared by many others.
What I didn’t understand is the fact that the purchase does not just affect me and my body. It also plays into an entire economic ecosystem that affects jobs, communities and the health of the planet.
Before you roll your eyes at the undeniable cliche-ness of that assertion, understand that this is not just a flowery sentiment. The effects are tangible not only here in India, but in communities around the world.
In my time with Two Brothers and Deepa, I gathered three main ways that organic farming is different from industrial farming. (We’ll call this section ‘What’s the Point of Organic Farming’ for Dummies.)
Benefit to the body: First and foremost is the difference in quality in organic vs. non-organic. Industrial farms use growth hormones and pesticides to maximize the output of the crop and kill insects and pests. These chemicals don’t disappear. They are internalized by the produce, and trace amounts end up in your body. Eventually, these chemicals can form into cancer cells and lead to serious health problems down the line. Yikes.
Benefit to the Earth: A lesser understood difference between industrial and organic farming is the difference in effect on the planet. Industrial farms grow acres and acres of the same species of crop together at a time. While this makes for better operational efficiency, it’s not how plants naturally grow. So, crop cycle after crop cycle, the soil becomes devoid of the healthy microbes that lead to healthy produce. Eventually, the soil becomes infertile. So, not only is this bad news for the farmer, who can’t grow any more produce with that land, but forests are rapidly being wiped away to make room for more farmland. This cycle is perpetuating right now and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.
Benefit to the community: Organic farming causes a domino effect that enriches the community. Because it is more laborious to farm naturally, more workers are needed, creating more jobs in villages, so that locals don’t have to migrate away to cities to support their families. This is the basis of Grusha’s initiatives to employ local women with farming jobs, and so far, it’s working.
After listening to the many conversations between Satyajit, the marketing pros and his fellow farmers, I began to see how all of these three categories are interconnected. When we create demand for organic produce, we’re simultaneously helping create jobs for locals and derailing the incentive for corporations to continue deforestation. When we say no to unnatural processes, we’re reducing our impact on the planet while supporting the livelihoods of organic farmers. It’s more than just your own personal investment in your health. It’s an investment in your community and the Earth.
The moral of the story here is ‘You reap what you sow.’ In the case of farming, the meaning is quite literal.
One of Two Brothers’ plots where they practice non-homogenous farming. You can see papaya trees lined up in the middle right.
If something is considered valuable, people suddenly find the time and money that they didn’t have before. Everything else is semantics.
Reviving India’s Organic Roots
All these reason add up to why farmers markets are so important. The farmers market is the medium that channels all of the benefits of organic farming into reality.
While you can still buy organic food at some health food stores, farmers markets eliminate the middle-man from the picture, drive down price for you, the customer, and put you face-to-face with the person that grows your food. Instead of giving a corporation your paycheck, why not give it to the pioneers of a health and environmentalist movement?
Satyajit discussing plans with students for farming projects at his alma mater
Suddenly the marginal price difference doesn’t seem that unreasonable. On the contrary, I think the message is so powerful, when understood in full, that most would be happy to support it if they understood.
There’s still a long way to go in spreading awareness of the importance of buying organic. But Two Brothers and Organic We are tackling the challenge head on. Just today, we visited Satyajit’s alma mater high school where he has started an organic farming club to educate kids about the benefits of organic farming that evaded people like me. And this weekend, Satyajit is helping to host a meeting of more than a thousand non-organic farmers in India to talk about how he transformed his family’s operation into an organic one.
As for Organic We, they are moving forward with some new marketing tactics and are determined to see dozens more of the neighborhood’s residents in regular attendance at the market in the next six months.
I didn’t know what I would learn from my two week stint in India, but I didn’t expect it to be a lesson in the impact of my own consumerism, which I’d previously thought of as trivial. Now, next time I find myself torn between organic and non-organic, I’ll be aware that the choice isn’t just about me. It’s much bigger than that.
A huge thank you goes out to Satyajit and his family for generously hosting me and patiently teaching me about Indian culture, asking me for nothing in return but to have an open mind and willingness to help spread the word of their movement.
You can visit Two Brothers Organic Farms website to check out their products and follow Organic We on social media @OrganicWeCommunity.