The Times of India had an article about an Oota from your Thota (OFYT) meetup at St.Johns road on 7th September. I heard of such events happening in Electronic city in 2013, but since this was close enough I decided to attend. Oota is the Kannada word for food and Thota is the word for garden. What surprised me is that as per this article there were more than fifty thousand mini farms on people's terraces in Bangalore in 2020. An initiative that was begun by Dr. B. N. Vishwanath who created an NGO named Garden City Farmers way back in 1995. Unfortunately they seem to have stopped publishing on their website and switched over to Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, none of which I use. Particularly after reading this security warning. Anyway, OFYT organizes frequent meets where they even share seeds, so the seeds eventually become a Thota from somebody else's Oota :-) which then grows into an Oota from your Thota.
At the event what surprised me was the drive everyone had. They were very courteous, eager to help and made sure they proactively asked questions to figure out what problems people were facing with their terrace garden and readily offered suggestions and options on how to tackle the problems. There were various types of stalls put up around B.M. English school along the footpath. I heard there was even a workshop held inside the school regarding composting, but I missed it because one of the scouts told me there was no stall inside the school, and because there was no announcement about it other than a tiny sign that pointed to the school saying "workshop".
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An encouraging glimpse into the world of various terrace farmers in Bengaluru.
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These grow bags seemed quite sturdy. The small ones cost Rs.65.
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Natural chemical free products from Little Silk (I believe this is different from another brand named The Little Silk)
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Natural soaps. I felt they could have improved the appeal a bit more by using mounds with smoother edges and they could have also put up a poster explaining exactly how these natural soaps are better than the commercial soaps we use. Also about how the commercial soaps may be affecting health if it does.
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Natural lipsticks using beetroot, rose and perhaps natural oils.
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Chocolate wax to remove tan, natural facials, etc.
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Various food powders.
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Organic honey, ghee, nuts, etc.
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| A green kitchen whose people are willing to teach you how to reuse or recycle things in such a way that you reduce waste significantly. |
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| A mixture of powdered pre-cooked organic millets etc which can be dissolved in water or milk and consumed |
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| Various gardening tools |
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| Decomposting agents |
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| Compost and manure |
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| Rooting aid |
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These are lanterns made from actual vegetables. An electric bulb can be placed inside, creating beautiful light patterns.
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Sound tubes used by tribals to communicate during hunting. The bamboo tubes have zig zag channels inside and seeds flow down them when you turn the tubes upside down, creating a unique flowing noise.
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| The rhino on the right is said to be made from Assam tea plant wood |
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Bows used by fishermen in Andaman. The actual arrows used by fishermen would have metal heads. The arrows are shot through a hole in the middle of the bow so the arrows have no fletching. The arrows are said to be able to fly as far as 100m. The bow costs around Rs.450, and two arrows (with wooden arrow heads) are given with it.
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Various homemade snacks made with organic oil and organic raw materials, prepared by a brand called "Tasty Crunchy Products" at Kammanahalli. They even make Kerala pappadam and appalam.
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| Various organic pickles |
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Eco urban farms provide elevated garden growing containers on rent. They also help with growing the veggies by coming to your house and doing the work every month. Total cost of the rental and maintenance is Rs.5000 per month. Else, you can purchase these containers. The container slightly larger than what's in the picture cost Rs.6500. It's made of fiberglass (though it looks like aluminum) and they have other types of containers of other materials too. The weight matters, because a roof can only safely support around 200kg per square meter.
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Various saplings, grow bags and garden tools available for reasonably cheap prices. The saplings on the right were just at Rs.5 each.
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Various kinds of rice and millets from JivaBhumi. There is actually something different about these food items. Although I was skeptical at first, I found it to be somewhat reliable (though I need to consume a bit more to confirm). There are specific instructions on how long to cook these rice varieties and how much extra water to use. Some can even be soaked for long to germinate them, which increases nutritional value. I had a conversation with the co-founder who seemed to be a genuine person.
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Organic sugar, jaggery, dal, ancient variety of wheat.
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| Cold pressed oils |
Various other snacks and pickles created from organic produce...
Products from Quantum Leap (they have a vertical named Quantum Leaf) for terrace gardening.
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Various seeds available at reasonable rates. They'll send it to you via speedpost when you order.
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Various products from Akshayakalpa. It's worth watching their Good Food Movement videos https://www.youtube.com/@goodfoodmovement
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| Products from Biological Research Innovation Centre and Solutions (BRICS) |
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MycoDim is a broad spectrum, contact foliar fungicide that prevents a variety of diseases on ornamentals, trees, potted plants, fruits, vegetables and turfs. SasyaRakshak is a water-soluble plant protectant, carefully designed to contain all good constituents derived from select botanicals of known pesticidal properties. The combination of active ingredients from these plant sources provides excellent protection to the crop plants against sucking (Aphids, thrips, mites, mealybugs, hoppers, and bugs) as well as biting ( leafminers, caterpillars, beetles, weevils) insects.
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Natural shampoos, hand wash and face wash
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| The stalls were put up on an actual footpath |
Oota from my thota
In around 2014, I purchased a few grow bags and tried growing some veggies on my terrace.
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The first tomato harvest had a worm/caterpillar enter one of the tomatoes. I soon found that a butterfly or moth was laying tiny yellow eggs on the leaf and those were becoming the caterpillars that ate the tomato. Removing the eggs early helped avoid that issue. I didn't purchase any seeds. I used the seeds from whatever veggies I purchased from stores. I did face issues of the soil getting very soggy during rains, the water at the base of the grow bag accumulating at the bottom without draining off sufficiently from the drainage holes, earthworms slithering away during rains, fungus at the roots and those white flies infesting the green chilly plants. I was pleasantly surprised to see small honeybees visiting the plants, preying mantis, lady bugs and even dragonflies. There were also times I saw some plants squashed, which I assumed was because a feral cat either walked over it or used the place as a bed. I have some reason to believe it even used the soil as its private restroom.
I mentioned some of these issues I faced, to the people at OFYT and they gave me some nice solutions like collecting the leachate using a container below the grow bag and reusing it for watering the plants after diluting it.
There are things that can be improved with such initiatives in terms of being able to make people aware of what is available, visualizing where organic farms are nearby on a map, using tools like what3words or digipin, a trained LLM that can explain things for people instead of them having to connect with a person and worrying if one would be disturbing them, using a website or a dedicated organic farming app instead of third party tools like WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Since organic food is expensive, there is much to be done to ensure that people have better access to organic food from reliable sources.
How can we trust the organic produce?
As for the organic produce, one of my main concerns has always been whether the farmers were honest. I was told that Aditi organic certification and India Organic certification ensures that farmers are compliant, but there is also the fact that those whose turnover does not exceed Rs.12 lakh do not have to go through the verification of compliance. Even for those who comply, there are residual limits of insecticides, other contaminants, heavy metals and toxins measured by the certification agency. This makes me worried about whether at least some farmers may use diluted insecticides etc thinking that nobody would find out. Whether the certification agencies are honest/thorough. Whether adulteration happens. Whether PFAS contamination from rain could be an issue even in remote areas. These contaminants can apparently cause kidney cancer, testicular cancer and thyroid issues and remain in the bloodstream for long.
Then one wonders how many farmers in India know of the effects of the herbicides they use. Shockingly, even after a ban on glyphosate in 2022, there is a 2023 article that says farmers are allowed to use it, and is probably still being used in tea plantations (I wonder if that's what gave me immediate stomach discomfort on consuming green tea). Glyphosate is said to be one of the reasons for non hodgkins lymphoma as per the video below.
Effects of various other contaminants
- Organophosphates and organochlorines could disrupt the function of the thymus, potentially leading to autoimmune disruption.
- Aflatoxins being linked to immune suppression and liver cancer.
- Dioxins causing skin lesions, patchy darkening of the skin, reproductive issues, interference with hormones and damage to the immune system.
- Aminoglycosides which can cause hearing loss, gaze instability (oscillopsia) and balance impairments.
- Tetracyclines which can cause skin photosensitivity, fatty liver, tinnitus, abdominal pain, breathing issues, and cause drug-induced lupus.
- Heavy metal poisoning: Mercury causing central nervous system (CNS) injury, renal dysfunction, GI ulceration, liver toxicity, Lead causing CNS injury, lung dysfunction, anemia, liver damage, cardiovascular dysfunction, chromium causing kidney dysfunciton, gastro intestinal (GI) disorders, skin diseases, increasing incidence of various cancers, cadmium poisoning causing degenerative bone disease, kidney dysfunction, liver damage, GI disorders, lung injuries, impacting metabolism of zinc and copper, causing cancer, arsenic causing cardiovascular dysfunction, skin and hair changes, CNS injury, GI discomfort and liver damage. There are some precautions to be aware of when considering chelation.
- There are other chemicals causing bone loss and pyrethroid poisoning which can cause itching, burning, muscle twitching.
- Chlor-pyriphos, dimethoate, phosalone, mancozeb and captan causing malignant brain tumors (glioblastoma multiforme, medulloblastomas, astrocytomas, anaplastic oligodendrogliomas, ependymomas, choroid plexus papillomas, etc.).
How much do our farmers know about all this, and how much do they care about safe food. Even if they do care, how many of these chemicals are finding their way into fields via various environmental effects and even via companies run by educated people? A survey by the government found that even some organic veggies had heavy metal contamination at some places. The bodies of various people (including mine) are wasting away, supposedly from the effects of these chemicals, and doctors aren't doing much to help identify these issues and come up with solutions.
Then there's the issue of price. Most of the organic produce is priced at double the market rate or more. An organic farmer named Naveen in Mysore says that organic food could be priced 10% or 15% higher than other food. This seemed reasonable to me. However, I need to find out the realities of organic farming to understand the actual costs involved. Whether they get subsidies, what their actual costs are with respect to getting the soil ready for safe farming, what the FPO's (farmer producer organization) or investors take as their share, and any other realities.
Healthy food is not meant only for the rich. It's a basic necessity of life.
I also noticed that there is a National Centre for Organic and Natural Farming (NCOF) and a Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGSI). Ideally such organizations would not be required if safe farming was made mandatory across the country/world and technology was utilized well to match demand and supply.
