Happenings and thoughts from Vaanavil Farm & Food Forest, Vikramasingapuram, Tirunelveli District I will let the photos do rest of the talking for our February story. Regards Sudhakar
Category: Blog
Vaanavil Diaries : January 2026
January was a difficult month for us. A lot of positives happened last month too: We have not been regular with posts as much as we would like to be. Hosting guests, homeschooling Vanya, and running our small organic groceries business has been taking up much of our time. So here is a photo dump…
Stop seeking like-minded people to start living off-grid in a farm
An uncomfortable note from someone who actually lives it. There’s a question I get asked regularly: “Is there land for sale around your farm?”“Is it okay if we buy land near other organic farmers?” Most times, my answer is either no or please think twice. Not because I don’t want neighbours. But because I don’t…
Why Masala Lab needs to look at agricultural systems from an Indian lens and not an American one?
Krish Ashok is at it yet again. He thinks he has built a nuanced position for GMOs. Nothing could be far from the truth. His recent video conflates artificial selection that has happened over thousands of years with lab developed GMOs which have a questionable history over 50 years. At its broadest, the definition of…
Why Masala Lab needs to update his understanding of pesticides and organic farming?
Krish Ashok is at it again. He admits that food and agriculture are complex topics; yet he continues to make reels that over-simplify. Krish Ashok’s recently uploaded a video on Instagram reels “Pesticides in spices : Do we need to worry?”. The conclusion he wants hs to draw is that “We don’t”. His understanding of…
Do we need to thank the green revolution for India being food self-sufficient?
“Thanks to the Green Revolution, India is food self-sufficient”. I am tired of reading and listening to variations of this statement of gratitude. What do these journalists even imagine? Do people really believe that before the British colonialized India, Tribes, Rajas and traders were importing food from the rest of the world to feed the…
What is the big deal about not tilling our soil?
I remember learning about top soil erosion during the environmental studies in class 5 in school. But, beyond that i don’t remember having any discussion about soil health or top soil loss in any other forum during classroom education. This is unfortunate, given that our existence is still dependent on us consuming food and not…
Obituaries of the Wild around Vaanavil
~ 10 minute read Trigger warning : couple of photos in the blog include pictures of dead animals. We keep posting a lot of happy stories about the farm life and the domesticated animals we rear. But the complete picture is more uglier than the image social media prods us to create. We want to…
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