Growing air, water and pollution is manifesting its ill effects in the form of increasing breathing problems, body ailments and life-threatening diseases among the populace. To counter these there have been attempts to live an environmentally sustainable life and one among them is use of organic products. Making a foray into this, is Life & Pursuits, an online venture which recently launched a range of certified organic body care products. These include massage oil, body wash and lotion, diaper rash cream, cough and cold balm for babies and hair oil, creams and footcare balm among others for grown ups.
Started by Mudit Consul along with his wife Aditi and Manshu Aneja, the Harvard Business School alumnus says, “In today’s world, irresponsible human activities have harmed nature to dangerous levels and increasingly exposing us to all kinds of health risks. Exposure to toxic chemicals is unprecedented in human history leading to an explosive growth in cases of cancer, asthma, hormonal disorders, allergies even among babies and youngsters. The continuous abuse of nature has come back to haunt humankind. Life & Pursuits is an attempt to change this by offering natural, safer and toxin free products.” The trigger point, he says, was India becoming the cancer capital of the world.
Explaining Life & Pursuits’ vision and mission, Mudit claims it is “to promote health, happiness and harmony through our merchandise. Based on wellness principles of Ayurveda, these are duly certified by United States Department of Agriculture and NATRUE (European Union standards). This is contrary to most companies blatantly indulging in ‘green-washing’ that is wrongly projecting an image of being green, and unethically claiming to be ‘organic or ‘natural’.”
Going further, Mudit claims the items offered are different from others. “The ingredients are safe and toxin-free for which we refer to international ingredient safety databases. These are all disclosed on the label and nothing is hidden behind terms such as ‘qs’, ‘base’ or ‘excipients’. Further we have tied up with certified organic farming communities in the Himalayas and the North East for sourcing herbs and oils while our suppliers have to be certified by USDA. We also continuously monitor and conduct extensive lab tests on the ingredients.”
Do consumers appreciate such details? Stating that most don’t, Mudit says they are leading a drive to create awareness among people, especially parents by educating them about harmful chemicals and their impact. “Our first focus is on activities, like reading labels of the everyday use products and checking safety record of ingredients online. We are developing multimedia presentations on various aspects of product safety and plan to use digital and social media to spread it.”
On pointing out that cost of organic products being higher makes them beyond the reach of most, Mudit agrees. “It is worth noting that the chemical based goods do a lot of harm to health and actually cost us much more in the long run in terms of ill-effects and medical care. We have consciously priced them reasonably and comparable to many of the conventional synthetic brands which are harmful.”
Switching totally to organic products at once, Mudit feels, is not feasible but a start needs to be made in that direction. “We have to gradually do it. In fact, in metros people are increasingly sourcing vegetables and fruits from organic markets while some enthusiasts are growing them too. The hilly States like Sikkim and Uttarakhand are leading in the effort to go organic as their people and farmers understand the dire consequences of going against nature.”
