A look at the city’s options for organic milk
What is organic? Is it just a fad, where it’s okay for the products to be priced higher just because it says ‘Organic’ on the label? Certainly not. Any product or ingredient, produced without the use of chemical pesticides, synthetic fertilisers and basically anything that could potentially put your body through a lot of distress, is an organic product. It’s obviously more expensive than commercial products but it’s also so much better for you.

In a country like India, where summer is predominant, we are advised to take a lot of fluids. And one of the very first things we are made to drink and something which has been a part of our diets for thousands of years, is milk. With organic milk, cows are given fodder that is free of pesticides, fertilisers or unnecessary growth hormones and the result is, well, healthy cows. A few years ago, Chennai saw small yet determined players stepping into the organic milk market.

Astra Dairy
Started around three years ago, Astra dairy was one of the first organic dairy providers in South India who started supplying milk in glass bottles. They have an organic farm in Gummidipoondi where the cows are fed pesticide free fodder. The cows are milked in an automatic milking parlour, and untouched by hand, the milk goes through a chilling tank and later bottled in recyclable glass bottles. “We deliver the milk within 12 hours of milking,” says RakeshRavindran , director of Astra Dairy. “Three years ago we started delivering milk to a house in Anna Nagar, now we deliver milk to around 1500 homes across Chennai.” Astra Dairy’s Farm Fresh milk is available at a minimum subscription of 30 days (Rs.65 a litre).

For details, log on to www.astradairy.in