ABOUT ROOTS
Organic Roots Myanmar (ORM), “Roots”, is a Myanmar registered company, which has a vision for increased market access for farming communities willing to grow and produce good quality, safe organic foods. Roots works directly with farmers who want to return to and scale up organic farming practices, guarantee fair pricing and support the growing food safety movement in Myanmar.
Roots links organic producers to consumers looking for healthy, tasty and fairly produced foods. Working with farmer cooperatives, Roots was created to support the production and sale of organic and nutritious food products in Myanmar and beyond.
ROOTS SOCIAL MISSION
- Roots aims to increase the sustainability of the operations through partnership, enabling farmers and producer communities to add value to traditional local products, and access niche markets to a high-end market.
- Women’s empowerment / income opportunities are flexible to support family life and responsive to the needs of the team members.
- Farmers have increased access to higher-end markets.
- Strengthening of farmers’ cooperatives to become a service provider for diverse clients through a supporting/supervisory approach.
- Models to be replicated with other products from different regions across Myanmar.
MORE THAN JUST FOOD
Roots Myanmar supports the growing food safety movement in Myanmar and works closely with the Food Science and Technology Association FoSTA (Myanmar). As food testing and certification are evolving in Myanmar, we believe in the importance of ensuring our products are always brought to you fresh, hygienic, safe and chemical free.
A FAIR PRICE FOR CHEMICAL FREE AND HEALTHY PRODUCTS
As well as being more labour intensive, organic crops typically yield less than chemically produced crops, therefore there are economic disincentives for farmers to farm organically. Working with farmers who want to switch back to organic production,Roots Myanmar offer an acreage guarantee price. This means that farmers receive the same amount of money for their organic crops as they would have received for their non-organic crops, regardless of the yield. As a consumer, you support the farmers by paying a fair price for your product.
ORGANIC FARMING
There is a strong desire among farmers in Myanmar return to organic farming practices. Roots works directly with farmers who want to return to and scale up organic farming practices. Working with farmer cooperatives, Roots Myanmar seeks to support farmers in getting their crops organically certified, and link organic products to consumers looking for healthy, tasty and fairly produced foods.
FAIR TRADE AND PRODUCTION
To ensure community benefits, Roots employ fair pricing and purchase guarantees of organic crops. Supporting organic production and Women’s economic empowerment are central to our business. Roots Myanmar is a social enterprise that offers fair prices to farmers and supports off farm employment for women in the community with flexible working hours that are family friendly.
QUALITY PRODUCTS
Roots is part of the growing food safety movement in Myanmar. We take food safety and hygiene seriously and follow International Standards and Principles to ensure our products are of the highest quality for our customers. Roots’ products are always brought to you fresh, hygienic, safe and chemical free.
Did you know a peanut isn’t actually a nut?
Panuts are packed full of B vitamins, Vitamin E, magnesium, iron, copper, potassium and fibre along with phytochemicals, some of which help to relax blood vessels and lower blood vessels. Also, ounce for ounce peanuts have as much protein as poulty, fish or meat so great for the vegetarians out there.
Peanuts are high in monounsaturated fats and low in saturated fat and so consuming peanuts and peanut butter doesn’t contribute to an increase cholesterol which is something we want to avoid because of the risk to cardiovascular health and increased heart disease.
In the world of science there has recently been a study which has shown some exciting results. A study of 3 cohorts from the US and southern China including over 206,000 40-79 year olds recently concluded:
"Consumption of nuts, particularly peanuts given their general affordability, may be considered a cost-effective measure to improve cardiovascular health,"
Studying dietary benefits of food is complex but this study is really promising in understanding just how good these little nuts can be!
In the words of Michael Pollan…… Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Sesame
Sesame or Sesamun indicum is among the world’s oldest known oil crop seeds. Cherished around the world for its delicious taste sesame seeds are also packed with essential nutrients and fibres that have a number of proven health benefits.
As well as being a versatile and tasty seed, sesame is an excellent source of oil, fibre, protein, iron, folic acid, zinc, calcium and much more.
Up to 50% of the seed is made up of fatty acid, both mono and poly unsaturated fats. It is especially rich in Oleic acid which is known to increase HDL cholesterol and lower LDL cholesterol (that’s the bad one!). Around 20% of the seed is protein which means it is an excellent source of protein for vegetarians and vegans.
There are more and more studies being carried out into the health benefits of sesame
but what we do know for sure is that those little seeds are packed full of goodness, taste delicious and are an essential ingredient for many of the worlds’ healthiest populations.
REVIEW
Roots works directly with sesame and peanut farmers in the middle of Myanmar, their tahini and peanut butter are our longtime best selling items in the shop.
