It is 7 am on Tuesday, October 6th. Devi and I are the camp site in Puliyampatti, Erode District.
A motley group of 7, both young and old, both men and women, representing "Thaai Mann Vanakkam" (Salutations to Mother Earth) are getting ready to start their walk.
A padayatra started on Gandhi Jayanti in the hills of Ooty across 2000 KM in 100 days to touch Chennai in January 2027.
A walk to raise awareness about organic food & farming among farmers and families alike.
We walk along, just for half a day. In solidarity.
Two meetings in two villages on the way.
One under a Banyan Tree and the other under a Peepul Tree.
Villagers listen to each of the 7 padayatris one by one.
The rural agrarian distress is there for us to see.
The villages are emptying out. Only the old live there.
Youngsters are moving out to the cities in search of jobs.
Farming is left only to the old.
The lands have become infertile due to excessive use of chemicals.
The inputs for farming - seeds, fertilizers, pesticides - are becoming increasingly expensive, while the produce is being procured at lower rates.
The squeeze is palpable. So is their helplessness.
Contrast this with the booming city nearby - Coimbatore.
Increasingly crowded, polluted, noisy and dirty.
Food is everywhere, so is garbage and food wastage.
But the quality of food is pathetic. Laden with chemicals, tasteless, flavourless.
Excessively processed and labelled.
"Bakes" (road-side bakeries serving tea and packaged snacks) on one side of the road, and the medical shops on the other.
The stress is palpable here too. The stress of life and jobs. Of disease and inflation.
It strikes us both. Organic food and farming can be a solution to both the rural agrarian distress and the urban food crisis.
Cleaner food coming from cleaner farms.
Decent remuneration would keep farming families in villages, while the urban can enjoy good health.
Now both suffer - the rural and the urban.
And the solution - organic food naturally processed - is waiting to save them both.
As more consumers choose health, the farmers will reap health as well.
The question for us consumers is: Will we choose health?
