◊ By Benefit Publishing Bureau

Note: To find the latest organic products, organic brands and organic shops in India, buy the Organic Directory 

The CoCo Weekend, a two-day celebration of Organic and Sustainable lifestyle, was hosted by The Bishop’s School, Pune, on November 30 and December 1. The event was curated by The CoCo Market, Pune’s first farmers’ market, created by Tanya Kane and Surabhi Ganguly.

The Weekend was inaugurated by Food Sovereignty Activist and Agro Ecologist, Dr Vandana Shiva, who along with her team from Navdanya, spoke about the importance of native seeds, soil health, community and sustainability. She emphasised the pressing need for community gardens as a solution to many of the issues facing agriculture today.

The CoCo Weekend was inaugurated by Food Sovereignty Activist and Agro Ecologist, Dr Vandana Shiva

DAY 1

The panel discussion on Day 1 of the weekend, ‘Why Food, Farming and Biodiversity must be part of Mainstream School Curriculum’, saw all panelists swing in favour of the subject.

Panelists included Dr Rajashree Joshi, Chief Thematic Programme Executive, BAIF Research Development Foundation; Ajinkya Hange, Co-Founder, Two Brothers Organic Farms; Anugrah Bhatt of Navdanya; Educationalist and Biodiversity Consultant, Hector Andrade; as well, Shevaun Pimenta, a member of The Bishop’s School’s organic farming club.

The two workshops on Day 1 were:

• ‘Seed is Life’, by Sanjay Patil , BAIF
• ‘Magic of Fermentation’ by Dr Amrita Hazra, Principal Investigator, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research; and Rohan Hastak, Founder of the restaurant, Ground Up.

DAY 2

Day 2 was focused on waste management. The keynote speaker was Vinod Bodhankar , Joint Director, Sagar Mitra Abhiyaan—who has been instrumental in inspiring more than 1,50,000 students to collect plastic waste to reuse and recycle.

Other panelists who spoke on waste segregation include Anil Gokarn, CEO, Institute of Natural Organic Agriculture (INORA); Amita Deshpande, Founder, Aarohana Ecosocial Developments; Santosh Maskar, President, Roseland Residency, a zero-waste housing complex; and Suchismita Pai, Outreach Manager, SWaCH.

The CoCo Weekend also marked the launch of www.goodbynature.in, a website curated by The CoCo Market as the market’s online extension.