Everybody loves green nowadays. The craze for anything organic has slowly spread from the Western world to India. Several organic stores are opening up. They promise everything from pesticide-free vegetables to herbally formulated face creams. In countries such as the UK and US, it is common to find eggs with labels such as “From organically-farmed chicken” or milk that proclaims to “come from cows that were fed organic grass”!

The media is full of reports of how going organic is the way to be. Exclusively organic restaurants and supermarkets are becoming quite common.

The craze for organic in India has not reached such proportions but awareness has increased exponentially. But the irony in India is, from ages hence, we had used herbal preparations and natural manure to grow fruits and vegetables. Development brought in changes, fertilisers, pesticides and chemical formulations. Now, the craze is go back to where we started. People now want to eat fruits and vegetables that have not been ‘contaminated’ by pesticides. Some even claim they taste better. Though this seems like a good idea, at present, organic food as well as other products are very expensive and reaches only a very small percentage of the population. Meanwhile, our advice is to just wash those fruits and vegetables at least twice!