GOOD news to those of us who want to go organic but have difficulty finding organic products: Healthy Options, a store chain that specializes in healthy and natural products, is now going fresh. It just launched its Organika line in stylish fashion at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel’s e’s Bar last night.
The place was dressed up to look like a farm, with wooden crates all around and some carrying nests of organic eggs on straw and some cocktail tables decorated with ears of organic sweet corn. The way out to the Tent, where the formal launch took place, was littered with dried leaves, and the tent itself was garbed in wooden crates, faux chicken, and makeshift vines. The guests were asked to come in plaid and jeans. The stage was made to simulate the concept behind Healthy Options’ new Organika line, which is celebrating life on the farm.
Organika is about good food grown the good way, meaning organic vegetables, herbs, pork, chicken and eggs sourced from local farmers which can now be found in the shelves of Healthy Options. For this line, Healthy Options has actually partnered with local organic farmers like Ronald and Josie Costales, who share the same vision for a healthier world by providing organic, healthy and honest food. The Costales couple own own a five-hectare organic farm in Majayjay, Laguna, where organic vegetables are grown as well as chicken and pigs. The organic vegetables and herbs are planted and harvested by hand and nurtured by sunlight, pure spring water and organic compost. Here, livestock raising is done in an environment that cultivates the pigs’ natural behavior. The pigs are raised in odor-free pens, with soft beddings made of soil, sawdust and carbonized rice hill. They eat an all-natural diet of rice bran, duck weed, copra meal, fruits and vegetables, and when they reach a certain weight deemed ideal for slaughtering, they are slaughtered in a humane way, without mutilation or cruelty. This farm also raises free-range chicken, meaning that the chicken can run around and forage for food while they are at the same time fed with wholesome grains, organic vegetable trimmings and wild bugs and insects.
There are no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs); no steroids, growth hormones, sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics or synthetic trace elements.
“By launching these products from our very own farm, we renew our commitment to giving our customers better choices for a better life. It is also a show of support to small organic farmers, and to healthy, humane and sustainable farming,” says Healthy Options’ managing director Romy Sia during the launch of the Organika line last night.
Sia spoke about Healthy Options’ vision for a healthier life with its new line of organic food products, after which event host Amanda Griffin-Jacob gave the stage to a fashion presentation, with actors simulating life on the farm on stage and models walking down the leaf-laden pathway in comfortable clothes and carrying baskets of fresh produce and eggs that make up the Organika line.
Sia was then joined on stage by Healthy Options’ president Christian Tan for a ceremonial toast that proudly announced the launch of the healthy organic food line and its availability in all Healthy Options stores.
