The curves of a freshly cracked open nut, roasted until it shines with a color of dusky caramel, with granules of salt in a sliver coating around it, spiced with a bit of chilli masala – accompanied by a killer aroma – can make anyone go nuts!
It’s the season of cashews! And it is hard to get enough of them.
Quite literally.
These high-profile staple additions to ghee roasted snacks and globules of sweets deserve their own unique origin story.
Why? What needs to be said so loudly that cashews need a feature film of their own?
Because all is not what it seems when we eat these salt coated burst of deliciousness.
The booming cashew industry slams another nail into the coffin of our increasing disconnect from the food we consume. The short film titled “Our Cashew Story” (42 mins) explores the cashew industry – its growing, harvesting and processing, the seasonal pesticide spraying and its environmental and health effects, the economy behind the cashew trade and the emerging alternatives to pesticides. Following on the heels of cashew grown in the bioregion of Auroville, the film brings together the nuances of this nut. Catch the trailer here!
Auroville is an international township in Tamilnadu, South India, where more than 3000 people from over 50 countries have chosen to come together to live a more conscious life with various experiments in sustainable farming, energy, building, etc. The issue of cashew crop pesticide spraying has been very compromising for Auroville’s ecological regeneration work in the bioregion.
With the climate movement growing under the inspiration of Greta Thuberg and others, the vegan movement in the west is also increasing in number. An under explored aspect of this trend is the rising rates of consumption of nuts in the form of plant-based milks and butters which has harmful implications for the developing world as this article explores.
In India, the impact that pesticides have had on the environmental and human condition has been immense and the cashew industry has had its own harmful history within it. Refer these articles for the broader overview of pesticide impact in India and the specific issue of Endosulfan pesticide spraying within the cashew industry.
There being not many comprehensive films inclusive of the range of complexities as that of the cashew industry is what spurred the birth of this film. Join us as we reconnect with the realities of our supply chain and help raise awareness and consciousness about the cashew industry – by asking ourselves how we can participate in changing the story.
The film is made in English with complete dub in Tamil, for the local audiences. The film would be submitted into film festivals to raise the alarm of the consequences of the global cashew craze.
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