Many take safe route to food at organic mela

Eating healthy

Diabetes rice, organic snacks and cosmetics, and many more stole the hearts of hundreds of visitors to the Safe Food mela held at Lalbagh on Sunday.

NGOs and organisations selling organic food products, cosmetics, seeds and manure had set up their stalls at the Mela attracting the young and the old with an array of products.

What the senior citizens found useful were products such as the diabetes rice and the like that promised them relief from ailments. The rajamudi rice which was being sold at many stalls also had many takers. Organic cosmetics and snacks were a crowd puller too.

“About 10 percent of the visitors will convert into regular customers,” pointed out Harish, owner of the Pink Restaurant. Harish gave up his grocery shop to go organic despite being aware that he was giving up a considerable amount of profit.

“I know that this food is safer and I wanted to sell safer food. I did not mind giving up a certain amount of profit for the cause,” he told Deccan Herald.

Breaking the notion that organic food products are ‘exotic’ and affordable only to a section of the people, a large number of customers showed interest in healthier food habits.

Ajay Kumar was one such customer, who has made it a point to study the food he is consuming. “Of course it is more expensive but I manage to buy at least vegetables and basic grains,” he says. He also buys it directly from farmers and at organic melas in the City.

The mela aims to build a bridge between the farmer and the consumer. Farmers like Srinivas found it a good platform to market their organic produce.

Srinivas, who had a vegetable stall at the venue, would otherwise sell organic produce for a loss for want of customers. On the contrary, he managed to rake in a profit of 10 percent at the mela.

Since there are a very few farmers growing organic food products, the customer pays a higher price. “We hope that with more awareness programmes, the prices will fall,” said Krishna Prasad of Sahaja Aharam.

Greenpeace, Sahaja Aharam, Lumiere Restaurant, Adi Naturals and Purna Organics were some of the organic establishments at the event.