Nutrition and Agribusiness: Kombucha to Processed Agricultural Products

This news has been published by FISIPOL UGM.

We admit that information needs are easy to find, but it’s not wrong to say that the supply is not always reliable.
These needs sometimes become vital because they relate to what we do or will do, such as our daily meals or clinical diet

Mufid salim, Founder of Gizigo

Yogyakarta, 31st October 2019 — The Fisipol Creative Hub sharing session last Thursday at the Digilib café, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (Fisipol) UGM presented several guests with an uncommon theme: Nutrition and agribusiness. They are a part of the changemakers – a nickname for the startups that went through the Fisipol Creative Hub’s talent pitching – and one of the founders of Gizigo.

“We admit that information needs are easy to find, but it’s not wrong to say that the supply is not always reliable. These needs sometimes become vital because they relate to what we do or will do, such as our daily meals or clinical diet,”  explained Mufid Salim, founder of Gizigo, a start-up engaged in nutrition and health. Healthy catering for illnesses and a nutrition consulting website are some of their services.

Serving complimentary beverages to the audience has been one of the characteristics of the Fisipol Creative Hub Sharing Session. But this time, kombucha is also served as a beverage instead of coffee. The fermented tea drink was made by Mimi Basi, a startup with its Kombucha product which is very fresh and healthy.

Apart from Mimi Basi, three other changemakers participating in the sharing session this time were Ghidzaid and Sida Tani. Same with Mimi Basi, both are engaged in nutrition and agribusiness.

“Kombucha is often associated as a fermented drink that is not halal to consume because many give the stereotype that fermented drinks have a high alcohol content. This claim is actually not true,” explained Kresna, founder Mimi Basi. Yet, according to him, Kombucha has many vitamin K and antioxidants that benefit the body.

Mufid discussed access to information, current student behavior, and cultural trends. “College students rarely eat vegetables because many fast and cheap food choices are available. Although information about healthy nutrition is easy to access, one of which is through the Gizigo platform,” explained Mufid. Gizigo is a web-based platform about diets and body consumption patterns. The platform involves nutritionists and provides nutritional consultation services.

One of the highlights of the Question-and-Answer session was the problem of stunting and inequality that is still happening worldwide. One of the actual cases in Indonesia is between urban and rural areas, for example, in several regions of Indonesia 3T. “Indeed, we have to develop affordable local food, a solution approach to food inequality that we are still facing, and stunting in our society must use a bottom-up, not top-down solution approach,” said Mufid. According to him, affordable local food is one of the critical answers to solutions to these problems.

Sida Tani, engaged in processing agricultural products to increase added value in farm products, also brought an exciting concept to the discussion regarding this sharing session. “Sida Tani processes agricultural products to increase farmers’ yields through processing products that are more durable and expensive, such as processing them with flour and drying,” explained Sida Tani. These changemakers who have traveled the country with their partners are a concrete example of improving nutritional health in the agribusiness sector. (/fdr)

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