The Erode, India, turmeric market draws auction bidders, and workers clean, grade, and grind raw turmeric roots into powder at Nani Agro Foods. Like champagne or Parmesan, Erode turmeric, grown on some 23 square miles around the turmeric capital of India’s Tamil Nadu State, now has its own geographic indicator, where local buyers peruse the crop at one of the largest turmeric markets in the country. The spice is made from the dried, ground rhizome of the turmeric plant, a member of the ginger family, and forms one of the bases of Indian curry and cuisine. High in curcumin, which gives it its yellow color, turmeric has been a staple of traditional medicine in India and China for centuries and is now touted as a treatment for almost everything that ails you, from liver disease to depression. That’s good for the small-scale farmers of Erode, who typically grow the crop on farms of less than 10 acres.