Local Organic Values

Improving Lives: Gaiam Helps an Indian Village Bring Back Local, Organic Values

“We used to spend 3,000 to 5,000 rupees ($70 to $115) a year on fertilizers,” says cotton farmer Kailash Burman. “Now we don’t have to do that. The pesticides are natural.” For the past five years, his farming village in rural India has been out from under the debilitating cost and health effects of agrichemicals. Burman is one of about 500 farmers who are part of an organic cotton project that teaches natural growing practices, provides seeds and supplies to farmers, and sells organic cotton to retailers. This hand-harvested, certified 100% organic cotton used in our towels, bed linens and clothing is creating a clean, sustainable revenue source for communities on the other side of the globe. Plowing is done with oxen, and their dung is converted to methane and piped through the village for cooking and heating. Gaiam VP of Merchandising Linda West worked with a community of cotton farming families in rural India to implement an organic farming program.

“When we were using chemicals in our fields, they were being introduced in the soil, in the cattle feed...” says one advisor with the organic farming project. “And there we are feeding the milk to our kids.” Now their land has been chemical-free for over five years.