Last Saturday, December 13th, about 150 folks gathered at a hall in Coimbatore to express our special thanks for Nandri Awardees of 2025.
On behalf of all consumers there, we expressed Nandri (meaning "Thanks" in Tamil) to them for not only protecting our land, soil, water & air, and food, but most important, protecting our tradition and heritage, & protecting our future for our children & grandchildren.
That day, they were our Chief Guests. And we celebrated their life and work on the stage.
Not by lamps, flowers and dignitaries,
But by symbols of their hard work and passion, and the blue drum!
Because we consumers should know their work, respect it.
This is like Ayudha Pooja of organic farmers.
This month many go Sabarimala.
I also went on a pilgrimage last month.
I visited, along with Devi, all Awardees.
Saw their work, their farms, spoke to them,
Recorded what they said, met their families, ate with them.
And then after coming home, I watched all those videos
One by one, hour after hour, again & again
Like one does pooja at home.
That is when I could see their
Knowledge & Expertise,
Passion & commitment,
Struggles & frustrations.
And I asked myself
Do organic farmers (or organic food) belong to the past,
or to the future?
Today, organic farmers are facing many challenges.
1. Chemical farming
2. Processed foods (now "Ultra Processed Food)
3. GMOs (where the seeds of our regular crops are modified genetically by incorporating DNAs of other species not limited to the plant kingdom)
4. Synthetic Food (where food of similar taste and texture is produced without farmers, soil or water, in factories!)
5. And even Food Delivery Apps which keep us from cooking at home.
And each of these challenges is 1000 times stronger than the organic food/farming movement.
So are they farmers of the past?
Or farmers of the future?
Will they survive this onslaught of change away from Nature?
To me, the answer is clear.
Organic farmers are both Farmers of the past AND Farmers of the future.
And Organic Food is both Food of the past AND Food of the future.
But it is up to us consumers and organizations like Bio Basics.
The Organic Farmers cannot make it happen on their own.
We need to do this together.
That is what we at Bio Basics have been doing.
For 10 years now.
Supporting organic farmers, telling their stories to consumers, taking their produce far and wide.
We will continue to do it until we change all our food, and all our farms.
And the first step towards that is to express our sincere Nandri to our organic farmers here.
Nandri, Nandri, Nandri!
