Satyajit Hange... on TWO BROTHERS ORGANIC FARMS and living with purpose

Abhay shares a conversation with Satyajit Hange, co-founding farmer of Two Brothers Organic Farms, located in Bhodani, a rural village in Maharasthra.  They chatted about generational influences on his journey, grappling with the challenges of running an eco-conscious enterprise,  and even the impact of his Vedic philosophy on his mission, vision, and values.

(0:00 - 3:10) Introduction
(3:10) Part 1 - nostalgia, typical farming day, tensions and purpose
(19:29) Part 2 - combating forces, leaving the corporate world for farming, competition 
(35:37) Part 3 - suprises from visitors, Vedic literature and "swadharma", conversations with previous generations
(49:04) Conclusion

OK - so in my book and in my mind, earth day really is everyday and lately, with each successive day, it seems like when it comes to the earth and climate, retro is actually quite innovative. So I’ve been asking myself the following almost “time machine” question. And here it is:  How would our foremothers and forefathers from a few generations ago react if they saw a slice of our current world and enviroment? I know they would be fascinated with so many improvements and major advances, but it seems that we would have a lot to learn from them to maybe urgently integrate into our practices today of how we preserve and conserve, treat the land we inhabit, and live consciously with engagement.  It’s certainly a question that was top of mind, as I shared a conversation with Satyajit Hange, one of the co-founding farmers of Two Brothers Organic Farms.  Satyajit is a 4th generation farmer in Bhodani (भोडणी), which is about ½ way between Pune and Solapur in Maharashtra. After going away to boarding school and then starting his post-MBA career in the marketing, banking, and education sectors, Satyajit felt his purpose was meant to be elsewhere, and so he, along with his brother Ajinkya, started Two Brothers Organic Farms to make a difference in sustainable rural agriculture.  Foundationally, they’ve been committed to 100% organic nutrition, humane indigenous animal welfare and farming practices using intercropping, heirloom seeding, and a superb focus on soil health and even bee pollination.  But one of the more amazing by-products of this has been the galvanizing effect on the community with training and education not only for their own teams, but for thousands of local farmers.  I particularly would also call out a spirit of activism, advocating for food labeling transparency and even the tech to monitor a traceable pathway back to the origin of each product. It’s a pretty 2025 way of respecting practices that were likely quite normal back several generations ago, and while Satyajit and Two Brothers Organic Farms have come a long way from sharing delicious papayas at local fruit stands to now distributing food across the globe, when I caught up with him to chat about it all, I first wanted to know how much of his ongoing journey has been driven by that inherent nostalgia for farming life that has run so deep for many generations in his family?

Learn more about Satyajit, his brother Ajinkya, and their work at twobrothersfood.com