Turmeric has been cooked into staple dishes and used in herbal medicine for thousands of years in India.
But in the last decade, the spice has taken on new life in the West, encapsulated into tablets and pressed into juice shots. That’s all thanks to America’s newest obsession: curcumin. The healthy compound is found only in turmeric and is responsible for the spice’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant powers.
Health companies in the US and Europe are willing to pay big bucks to get turmeric with a curcumin level above 5%. But Indian farmers, who grow most of the world’s supply, can’t cash in. What they produce isn’t that high in curcumin — only about 2%. Meanwhile, other countries, like Fiji, are creeping in, growing more turmeric with higher levels of the compound for Western markets.
So what does it take to make a healthier, more valuable turmeric? And is there a way for farmers in India to cash in on Western demand?
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