HEAVENLY ORGANICS
Illinois USA
Heavenly Organics was founded in 2005. However, their story began over 25 years earlier, when Amit Hooda was a young boy living in the Punjab Capital of Chandigarh while the Punjab Insurgency was taking place. The experience of living in a conflict zone stayed with Amit, even after his family moved out of the area and into the countryside of Northern India.His new home was steeped in vibrant culture, ancient traditions and vast wilderness. Amit had a pet cow, a buffalo and a great organic garden.
He was taught to live a purist life from his altruistic mother and renowned agronomist father, Dr. I.S. Hooda. Amit loved living off of the land and had a great respect for all living things. He often contemplated how he could help people living in isolated and conflict areas of the world and discussed these ideas with his father.
For over 35 years, Dr. I.S. Hooda had cultivated relationships with small farmers to help preserve traditional and sustainable organic farming methods while helping them earn a living from selling their delicious organic goods.
In the untouched forests of India live wild beehives that contain the most pure and delicious honey varietals known to humankind. Amit’s father was an integral influence in developing a sustainable, bee-friendly and smoke-free method of extracting the honey and worked with local honey harvesters to teach them this method.
Amit eventually decided to pursue a higher education in the United States. His parents encouraged him to attend the Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in Fairfield, Iowa to continue his studies and spiritual growth (MUM is consciousness-based education, where all students practice the Transcendental Meditation method and study traditional academic programs). While attending school and studying Computer Science, Amit and his father continued talking about how they could help eliminate conflict in areas of Northern and Central India and parts of the Himalayas, where conflict was still present. They came up with the premise that the only way to eliminate conflict is to provide the people in these areas with ethical job opportunities. The duo saw the potential in combining this idea with Amit’s father’s organic agriculture projects, and the idea of Heavenly Organics was born.In 2004, Amit and his father made it official by building worker-owned cooperatives to foster long-term trade partnerships that mutually benefit both farmers and consumers.
Today, Heavenly Organics supports nearly 600 family farmers and produces 100% Organic Raw Honey, Chocolate Honey Patties and 100% Organic Whole Cane Sugar.This work helps displaced people find markets to sell their goods and ensures them a reliable income. Without it, their means of livelihood would be very limited. For the past decade, Heavenly Organics has been leading the authentic fair trade movement and creating big change. Their goal is to increase the number of farmers they work with to 5,000 in the next five years and to extend this business model into other countries to help create long-lasting sustainable economies in other isolated areas and conflict zones. The company was built on the belief that profits can create peace, and will continue to expand on Dr. I.S. Hooda’s early visions of respecting the earth, animals, humankind, and all who contribute to the circle of life.