Thaai Mann and Soil Commerce
One thing I have understood over time is that the creativity of naysayers has no bounds. They have now come alleging that Isha is selling soil as “Thaai Mann” on one side while spreading the message to #SaveSoil on the other side. Only the ignorant will fall for such tactics.
BTW, is Isha the only one selling mudpacks? There are hundreds of small businesses that do. One simple search on Amazon or Google reveals the truth.
And is there anything wrong with selling a mudpack or soil pack? Let’s scratch the surface of the world of soil commerce and look for ourselves.
Everyone in the world is selling one thing or the other that comes from the soil. Soil is the very basis of our economic engine. From the vegetable vendor selling fruits & vegetables to the paints you use for beautifying your house, everything comes from taking out the topsoil.
Is there no commerce done with soil? Of course, there is.
On a basic level, our very food comes from the soil. A large amount of soil health degradation and soil loss happens due to our agro-economic activities, whether we like that fact or not.
People build houses with soil and bricks made of soil. India is the second-largest brick producer in the world. The annual demand for clay bricks in India was over 200 billion units in 2016, putting the market size at around 25 Billion USD. In FY 2020–2021 (Apr-Nov), around 29.15 USD million value of Brick was exported from India to the USA alone. It was around 17.92% of the total export of our bricks. And what do you think bricks are made of?
Heck, did you know that India actually exports Soil to over 132 countries?
So, is all commerce around soil bad? Not necessarily!
We depend on many soil-based products in our daily life. People take mud baths with soil, make life-saving medicines out of soil, dig the soil to take out fossil fuels and for silicon, make pots and glass out of soil, etc. All these and in fact most human activities lead to the loss of topsoil.
But if our soil is kept healthy and is replenished well, all businesses based on soil can flourish too. Actually, any and all such businesses depending on soil should support #SaveSoil for their own growth.
So, naysayers should withdraw from the crab mentality and rather focus on how they can #SaveSoil in their own capacity.
