Farmers, Citizens Demand To Establish Organic Food Testing Authority

With no sign of the pandemic ending soon, citizens have realized the importance of healthy eating. Organic farmers in Pakistan, which are scant in number, with support from health-conscious eaters demanded the establishment of an organic food testing authority

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2022 ) ::With no sign of the pandemic ending soon, citizens have realized the importance of healthy eating. Organic farmers in Pakistan, which are scant in number, with support from health-conscious eaters demanded the establishment of an organic food testing authority.� ���� Where the demand for healthy edibles has raised, so is the number of fake organic food sellers who are taking advantage of this situation.� ��� They deceptively sell chemically-altered edibles as organic in the market, with even innocent customers travelling all the way to the farm houses to pick veggies.� ��� A representative of the national standard body shared as organic farming is still in its nascent stage here, a holistic policy and enforceable action plan have not been materialized as of now.

Talking to APP, Senior Scientific Officer, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Dr. Nausherwan Nobel Nawab said the PARC has no monitoring cell and it was only providing guidelines to organic farmers on how to manage the growth of their crops without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides.� ��� Founder Desipoultry.co Mehryar Ali Khan, whose venture offers a range of organic fresh produce and finished goods, said the term organic has become a" marketing gimmick" and unfortunately innocent people were being allured by fake sellers.

But the only way consumers can assure the genuineness of a product was to ask relevant questions, he suggested.� ��� On this matter, Rustam Organic Dairy Farm's owner Muhammad Umar advised� visiting the farms as genuine organic farmers allow consumers to drop by their farms "as seeing is believing." ��� Meanwhile, Founder Pakistan Organic Association Qasim Tareen shared, "This body was formed to protect organic farms, reintroduce this thousands of years old farming technique and promote healthy eating culture." He further added,"We have approached PARC and relevant authorities to commission a testing authority with their collaboration".

��� Tareen and other organic farmers are hopeful that sooner or later more farmers will join them in their cause.

��� However, they all stressed the need of the hour was to constitute a regulatory body to prevent fake sellers from putting health of unaware consumers in jeopardy and to avoid letting the efforts and hardware of organic products sellers go in vain.

/mzm