sauntheninja
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Rich kids doing dumb shit is common anywhere no need to specially target her for being a womenA very close family friend used to oversee a large commercial and EU accredited+certified farm on the outskirts of Bangalore.
They used to grow a lot of things from chives, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, english cucumbers to exotic herbs and export it by plane to EU countries.
The leftovers were sold to shops like Namdharis and sundry local vendors at almost mandi rates.
It was a big ass farm and was almost net zero. Plenty of solar panels, bio gas plants, a scrubber to get much cleaner bio-cng, their kitchen ran entirely on gas from the plant.
He took us there on a weekend tour. We were quite impressed with all the green talk till we sat down to discuss commercial viability.
They had two consultants from Israel. Both made ISD calls then and ran a minimum bill of Rs. 3 lakhs a month. Then there were local agri scientists and researchers working in house. Very bright men and women.. told us about simple solutions to deal with fungus, ball worm and bugs of all sorts that are common in this region.
How green is it? They had massive green houses. Lets get to the pests part. How do you limit pesticides? Well well well... there are these machines which dig into the soil and raise the temperature by so much that it kills all bugs, insects etc. The same is repeated over the entire plotting area. It may take a couple of weeks but but.. they run on diesel which is ok, small bit of pollution for 'organic' certification toh chalta hai.
Only after all these and a zillion other processes do you get an 'export' licence under the 'organic' stamp from the EU. They are quite strict. Inspections are random and routine. They have cancelled several accreditions and licences issued to others in the past. They have bounties for employees to spot a lapse in processes or use of pesticides to get rid of a pest infestation. He was telling us about how standing crop in nearly 12 green houses had to be ripped from the ground and destroyed because of an infestation. They could not use pesticides to get rid of the bugs and letting the crop get to maturity would mean waiting for almost two months. The 'consultants' suggested to destroy everything.
After exhausting funds, they began diverting money from their other businesses.
The brainchild ? The owner's daughter in law who sipped red wine and scotch throughout the day at work. Modern women in a world of regressive men you see. The organics business shut down after some years not before nearly bankrupting the company.
Organic for own consumption is ok. Branded organic on a commercial scale after following the myriad rules and regulations in a tropical region is a sure shot at bankruptcy. Only luck can save you.