OUR STORY

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Most of the foods we consume today are predominantly farm based, but this was not always the case. Agriculture is hardly 13–14000 years old whereas human beings have been living for some two lakh years.

Data from various colonial archives talk of the existence of many alternative food systems along with agrarian produce, in the colonized geographies of the world, up until the Second World War. Since 1950, with the beginning of the industrialization of agriculture, the foods coming from the forest have reduced drastically.

Today it has become tough to find foods and food products that are free of adulteration and chemicals. But the great Indian forests hold the key to nourishment that is free of any human intervention and truly natural.

Wild foods are more than just cuisines; it is an entire ecosystem of intermeshed areas that are diverse yet connected. It is about nutrition, but also other concepts such as sustainable development, herbal medicine, forest conservation, famine control, climate change, water resource management and tribal culture.

At Forest Basket, we are working in the remotest areas of India to find food for the people who understand it.

This movement is not about fighting the system. On the contrary, it’s about opening our eyes to the existence of a larger system, of which we are already a part. It’s about learning from both ancient knowledge and the underlying wisdom of the forest people—something that cannot be recorded in writing, but only experienced as a way of life.

Photo credits: vikalpsangam.org