Organic farmers’ market every Sunday
It’s a first for the city, and probably the nation. Mumbai’s gets its very own farmers market, where urban somethings will finally meet the real sons of the soil.
If you are what you eat, as they say, Mumbai’s denizens are a toxic lot! Processed, refined foods laced with pesticides dive into our systems, via lifestyles that have no time for real food! (For instance, endosulfan, a carcinogenic insecticide has been banned in over 60 countries, but is widely used in India).
Farmers markets narrow the gap between a city’s food stock and the farms where they were cultivated. They promote local, fresh produce, eliminate the middlemen and grant higher profits to the grower. Food miles are reduced, since your kanda-batata doesn’t have to globe-trot to reach your table.
Eco-nutritionist Kavita Mukhi pioneered the organic food movement in Mumbai two decades ago, and is bringing the farmers to the big city. 30 farmers from Northern Maharashtra, whose produce is organically certified by French company Ecocert, are contributing to the market. City-birds are free to chirp with the kisaans and learn about life on an organic farm. The farmers have been asked to carry as much perishable produce as possible like fruits and vegetables, since organic grains and spices are already available in (select) health food stores and bazaars in the city.
