This city dweller aims at living a zero-waste lifestyle

A former teacher and a lover of all things beautiful and creative, Kalpana Manivannan decided to focus on full-time farming to create a better perspective about farming for the next generation. Kalpavriksha Farms in Manamai, ECR, was a dream born out of the concerning nature of the modern food industry and fuelled by the desperate need to opt out of it. “In the name of development and advancement, we are running away from nature, poisoning our own food and destroying the ecosystem we live in, there is a serious need to change our way of life. When did farming become the most deplored occupation? Can we change that perspective and help create a better outlook about it for our next generation? Can we even think of producing our own food? These are the questions I am trying to find the answers to,” she says.

Food is life and agriculture is thus a life-giving occupation. If we can grow our own food, it is possible to bring about a change in the quality of the food we consume and feed our children. Kalpana grows almost 55-variety of vegetables at her farm where her husband and two children help her during the weekends. “Though I was passionate about teaching, farming required a lot more time and commitment. So, I quit my profession and started concentrating on farming. Since I didn’t have any first-hand experience in farming, I attended a lot of workshops, did research and read a lot about farming methods. We procured native variety of seeds from the farmer’s market. With hybrid invasion, we have lost a variety of native seeds,” rues Kalpana.

A farming visionary, she also propagates homesteading — a desire to live as naturally as possible. “For me, homesteading is to be as self-sufficient as I can and learn new skills to grow towards that goal of self-sufficiency. We grow as much of our own food as we can and cook almost all of our meals from scratch. I also make my own soaps, body butter and detergents, and learn to do whatever I can to live as self-sustainingly as possible. For me, it’s about utilising the resources I have and to use it as effectively and sustainably as possible. I try and make as many things as possible from scratch as I can and the mantra I follow is, as many things as possible, not every single thing. I also wanted to follow a zero-waste lifestyle,” muses the farmer.

Farming is therapeutic and Kalpana urges the city dwellers to grow up their own veggies on a small scale. “We are becoming such a consumerist society; we don’t want to be producers anymore. Our food system is highly contaminated and it’s high time we cleaned it up,” she remarks.

Kalpana also prepares fresh fruit jams, sauces, pasta along with cooking everything from the scratch; avoiding the market products as much as possible.