Campaign against use of pesticides in Bangalore

Leading organic food firm Sresta Natural Bioproducts Monday launched an eight-day campaign here against use of pesticides in growing food products.

"Our campaign 'freedom from pesticides' is to generate awareness about ill-effects of pesticide contaminated food and promote organic food as the best alternative for being healthy," Sresta managing director Rajashekhar Reddy said on the occasion.

Highlighting benefits of organic food over conventional food products, Reddy said the campaign would cater to eco-sensitive consumers who prefer to have natural food all their life.

"Organic is not a mere label but a lifestyle and starts from the time food products are grown. The campaign is to offer food materials which are devoid of pesticides or other harmful products to society," he said.

During the campaign, the company is offering 30 percent discount on all its '24 Mantra' organic products to consumers through leading stores such as Food Bazaar, Nature's Basket, Spencer's Tesco, Wal Mart, Mother Earth, Hypercity and other retail outlets.

"Organic farming practices to restore soil purity, enhance soil aeration and water retention capacity is the optimal way to assert commitment to the ecosystem," Reddy pointed out.

Regretting that compromises were made on the purity of food consumed, Sresta chief executive N. Balasubramanian said grave issues in the food space like pesticide residue, adulteration, genetic modification and unhealthy storage practices were being ignored at the cost of healthy.

"Going forward we intend to double the area under organic farming to 80,000 acres from a network of 12,000 farmers, cultivating 50,000 acres and introduce new products like healthy snacking range," he said.

The Hyderabad-based Sresta does organic farming with small farmers in 15 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and processes about 8,000 tonnes of food materials in 46 cities across the country.

"We work with farmers directly to ensure organic integrity and provide quality, great-tasting products. All our products are certified for the US, European and Indian organic standards.