Whilst all Hab Shifa products are grown on organic farms, we are often asked why our products are not certified organic. Organic farming practices are extremely important to us. We have searched the globe to find the best organic producers of Black Seed and settled on a group of small farms in the Northern region of India. After extensive research, we found that the seeds grown in this region are the most potent seeds available.
The farmers in this region have no choice but to use completely organic fertiliser – they simply cannot afford commercial and chemical fertilisers. The only fertiliser that they use is cow manure – the most natural form of fertiliser known – which comes from cows raised on their land or on other farms in the locality. Other than that, our farmers depend on rainfall to ensure the farm is irrigated well.
At harvest season, they dry the pod, get the seeds, and take them to a large market where exporters come on a daily basis to bid and purchase the black seed from the farmers auctions. Hab Shifa agents are present at the auction twice a week purchasing the most pure seeds for our customers around the world. The seeds are finally run through a sorting machine which separates any foreign matter and ensures that the seed is 99.99% pure before being dispatched to our warehouse in Melbourne. We personally ensure that no chemicals are used, from farm to shelf, as we know this results in the purest product.
Despite this, none of our farms in India are considered large enough to qualify for organic certification, so we are unable to apply to carry the label – even though our farming practices adhere to organic guidelines. Whilst organic integrity is extremely important to us, growing the best product possible is our ultimate priority, and we simply cannot achieve that by farming on a mass-scale, or sourcing from any other region. The integrity of our seeds would be compromised and our little farms, and the wonderful growers we work with, would suffer.
Some people align official certification with organic integrity, but this is certainly not the case for smaller farms like ours. They, like many other small-scale farms around the globe, grow 100% organic crops, without actually being certified. Certification alone doesn’t dictate actions, ethics or practices. Here at Hab Shifa, we hope that the quality of our product speaks for itself, and that our customers feel confident that we are giving them the very best in every tiny seed.