GOING ORGANIC: Basudeb Banerjee (right), Chairman, Tea Board of India, shaking hands with Kaison Chang, Secretary, FAO IGG on Tea, at a press conference in Kolkata on Friday. Anne Boor (left), Project Director, INFOAM, and Nianjun Schen, Assistant Project Manager-Common Fund for Commodities, look on.

Chandigarh, September 4 Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (Hafed) has introduced certified organic mustard oil in 500 ml pack, for Panchkula, Chandigarh and Delhi markets.

Haryana Agriculture Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha said initially it is available at Hafed retail outlet at Chandigarh and Hafed corporate office, Panchkula, Hafed office, Delhi and Hafed retail sale outlet,Taraori, Karnal district. Extracted out of mustard seed grown in certified organic farms in Haryana, Hafed organic mustard oil is available at a price of Rs 61 per bottle in 500 ml packs.

Hasan Suroor

A "Marie Antoinette moment'? Or much ado about nothing?

Either way it had all the trappings of a perfect media storm with Prince Charles bang at the centre of it. He was dubbed a "modern Marie Antoinette' after his remarks in a newspaper interview recently were interpreted as effectively tellin g people to eat organic food when, thanks to rising prices, they are struggling to afford Pot Noodle.

Rising food prices and shortages have joined the energy and climate crisis, economic recession, and the war in Iraq, as headline news. While consumers struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table, Monsanto, Cargill, and Archer Daniels Midland rake in billions from taxpayer-subsidized biofuels. Monopolizing markets, polluting the environment with genetically modified organisms, and hoarding future reserves of crop seeds, wheat, rice, soy, corn, and other grains, the food and gene giants profit from global crisis and misery.

Over GM crop trial: The anti-GM lobby group in New Zealand has challenged the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) for approving 10-year-field trials for genetically modified brassicas.

Outstandingly organic: The villagers of Meekeri in Udhagamandalam, Tamil Nadu at the entrance to their village. Though organic farming has been proved to be a low investment technology for growing crops, marketing organically produced crops has not been an easy task especially for some farmers. Lack of information on marketing channels and absence of proper governmental guidelines has forced many of them to sell their produce for a throwaway price, an irony when today, organic produce fetches a good price (Rs.3-4 per kg more) than chemical p roduces. The villagers of Meekeri village, popularly called as organic village, situated about 16 kms from Udhagamandalam, faced a similar problem in marketing their organic produce. Bio village The village has been adopted by the Institute of Commercial Horticulture (ICH), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Udhagamandalam, under the Hill Area Development Programme as a bio-village. The farmers of the village were trained to cultivate their crops under organic practices by ICH. Crucial inputs such as Panchagavya, Dasagavya, Biodynamic compost, vermicompost, Cow pat pit Azospirillum, Phosphobacteria, and bio-control agents such as Trichoderma viride and, Pseudomonas fluorescens for growing the crops were provided by the Institute. Increase in yield Field demonstrations were conducted under the guidance of Dr. N Selvaraj, Professor and Head of the Institute. Speaking on behalf of the villagers Mr. N. Sekar, a farmer said, "there is an increase in yield of 5