-The New Indian Express   HYDERABAD: We are often fascinated by the bright colours and unusual sizes of vegetables and greens, one of the reasons that compel us to purchase them. In order to meet the demands of consumption, a lot of chemical enhancers are used while farming these vegetables and greens, to make them look much more attractive. Even though most of us are aware of the fact that chemicals are used...

-Mid Day   A visit to the APMC in Vashi revealed that calcium carbide - referred to as ‘carpet' by traders - which is known to cause cancer, food poisoning, nausea etc - is being used indiscriminately to ripen the fruit faster, so as to increase sales Think before you sink your teeth into those juicy, delicious mangoes. For, they could have been ripened artificially using calcium carbide, a deadly chemical that is...

-Grist Media   The people of the Thar desert have their ways. This story unfolds over a year and recounts history through contemporary lives lived gently and with the land. It experiences first-hand the extraordinary old magic of growing lush crops in the desert. The land was the color of burnt caramel. It was flat and it was featureless: there was no tree in sight, no blade of grass, no ditch, no dune,...

-The Hindu   Chennai: In a fresh bid to widen access to low-cost quality food, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has ordered opening of 360 more "Amma Unavagams," the popular eateries, across Tamil Nadu. Among them 200 eateries would be set up in the Chennai Corporation limits. With this, the State would soon have 654 such canteens serving quality food at affordable rates. In expanding this welfare scheme which benefits the poor, daily wage earners,...

-The Hindu GHUMNOOR (ADILABAD Dt.): In what could be the first step towards a welcome reversal of current farming practices in the Agency areas, a hotelier from Hyderabad, Ram Babu, has tied up with tribal farmers of Ghumnoor in Sirpur (U) mandal of Adilabad for the purchase of indigenous varieties of millets. Instead of sowing the vexatious Bt cotton, the farmers will now cultivate local varieties of foodgrains in a part of...