Demand for organic products continues to grow and outstrip the supply. How organic are these products, when they have to be transported over many miles to reach consumers? And how sustainable is organic produce, when it is grown on large farms, leaving less and less room for biodiversity? Questions like these add another dimension to a debate that has been going on

There are 15 distilleries in Tamil Nadu under operation. The distillery effluent (mainly spent wash) is dark brown in colour and acidic in nature. It contains high percentage of dissolved organic, inorganic matter and potassium. Till year 2000 these units had disposed the partly treated effluent on land as fertilizer and stored in lined lagoon for solar evaporation.