Extraordinary Health Magazine Extraordinary Health Vol 25 | Page 45

Bangalore­—the Silicon Valley
of India
Landing in Bengaluru (a.k.a. Bangalore)
was eye-opening. Appropriately named
the Silicon Valley of India, the city is clean,
modern and full of gleaming skyscrapers
that stretch across an impressive skyline,
with significant dots of public parks and
green spaces.
My hosts are a unique husband and
wife team—both scientists committed
to researching the fruit, vegetables
and herbs used for centuries in Ayurvedic
medicine. They are award-winning chemists
who hold 30+ worldwide patents for their
discoveries, particularly in the areas
of botanical extraction. Perhaps more
relevant to this trip, they became organic
farmers approximately 15 years ago
when they realized that the proliferation
of genetically modified food crops was
a real threat to the diversity and nutritional
value of our food stream. They purchased
a large tract of barren land, at the edge
of a forest, far from the area’s growing
industrialization. There, they applied
their unique combination of ancient
farming techniques and modern science
to develop one of the most productive
farms I’ve ever seen.

Traveling to the Farm
Their farm, an hour from the nearest city,
is barely accessible by small vehicles.
We arrived with a car and a small “lorry”
(a small truck cab with a very short flatbed
in the back, maybe one-third the size
of an American standard pickup). As we
drive toward a large new building on the
farm—the only visible structure—we pass
a “fence” made out of simple rope and
dyed red, ringing the entire perimeter.
My hosts explain that the rope I see, has
been soaked in cayenne. The forests are
full of wild elephants who used to trample
the fields, knocking down the fruit trees
to eat their fruit. The elephants, however,
have a keen sense of smell and are
repelled by hot spices, making this simple,
thin rope an effective elephant deterrent.
The building we part at is a completely
self-sustaining laboratory, university lecture
hall and home for the farm’s manager.
Running entirely on solar power, the
gleaming interior is well equipped with

Local school supported by the farm.

My hosts explain why these Amla trees
are of particular interest to the botanists
and chemists in the Indian agricultural
university system. Unlike the normal
Amla trees throughout the country, these
organic trees have larger berries (roughly
30 percent larger), with greater nutritional
density than the norm. What’s more
important is that they bear fruit three
times annually, while conventional trees
fruit only once or twice.

I ask, “What’s your secret
to success?”

Harvesting organic amla fruit.

satellite internet, analytical equipment
for physical and chemical analyses and
a smartboard used when the university
system in India sends Ph.D. candidates
to the farm to study organic growing
method ̸