Amit Hooda hopes to eliminate conflict with sustainable honey harvesting. He started Heavenly Organics, a company selling raw, organic honey with the goals of providing ethical jobs and fostering peace. The company supports almost 600 family farmers in conflict zones across India by selling what they describe as the “cleanest sourced honey you can find.”
Hooda discussed with his agronomist father, I.S. Hooda, how he might help people living in conflict zones. His father had spent 35 years building relationships with farmers to preserve traditional organic farming practices, according to Heavenly Organics, and help them earn money from their products. Amit grew up near a conflict zone in India during the Punjab Insurgency, and that experience inspired him to figure out a way to help others. Together, the Hoodas envisioned a company that could provide people with ethical job opportunities as a way of defeating conflict. Over a decade later, Heavenly Organics supports hundreds of farmers and sells cane sugar, chocolate honey patties, and honey.
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They don’t sell just any honey, but raw, organic honey sourced from wild beehives in the forests of Central and Northern India and the Himalayas. They say the free-range bees that create their honey and their hives have never been exposed to antibiotics, pollutants, genetically modified crops, or pesticides. Farmers harvesting honey draw on smoke-free methods to conserve wild bee colonies.
Heavenly Organics enables displaced people to find markets for their products and earn a reliable income, according to the website. The company says, “Our goal is to increase the number of farmers we work with to 5,000 in the next five years and to extend this business model into other countries to help create long-lasting sustainable economies in other isolated areas and conflict zones.”
Find out where Heavenly Organics products are sold near you here. You can also read more of the company’s story in this recent Wired article.
Image via Pixabay
