prasad1
Active member
Vegetarians, far less vegans, let us be frank, would not like to be compelled to eat meat. Yet the reverse compulsion is what lurks in the current proposals for a new ‘planetary diet’. Nowhere is this more visible than in India.
The subcontinent is often stereotyped by the West as a vegetarian utopia, where transcendental wisdom, longevity, and asceticism go hand in hand.
Earlier this year, the EAT-Lancet Commission released its global report on nutrition and called for a global shift to a more plant based diet: “The scientific targets set by this Commission provide guidance for the necessary shift, which consists of increasing consumption of plant-based foods and substantially reducing consumption of animal source foods”.
In the specific Indian context, the call to consume less animal foods has a special significance because it could become a tool to aggravate an already vexing political situation and stress already under nourished Indians.
Worryingly, the EAT report feeds into the false premise that ‘traditional diets’ in countries like India include little red meat which might be consumed only on special occasions or as minor ingredients of mixed dishes.
In India, however, there is a vast difference between what people would wish to consume and what they have to consume because of innumerable barriers around caste, religion, culture, cost, geography, etc. Policy makers in India have traditionally pushed for a cereal heavy ‘vegetarian diet’ on a meat-eating population as a way of providing cheapest sources of food.
The report says that legume consumption has traditionally been high in many cultures, such as India. Legumes are also expensive, provide low protein quality, are limited by poor digestibility and long cooking time. Often people consume watery legume gruel and that too, if it is available through the public distribution system, which is often erratic. They neither provide best quality proteins nor are they consumed in sufficient amounts.
Currently, food politics in India spearheads an aggressive new Hindu nationalism that has led to many of India’s meat eating minority communities being treated as inferior. Muslims, Christians, Dalits and Adivasis are overtly and covertly coerced into giving up their traditional foods to fit into a vegetarian Hindu identity.
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Rather than addressing chronic hunger and malnutrition through an improved access to wholesome and nutrient-dense foods, the government is thus opening the door for company-dependent solutions.
What is conveniently being ignored here are the environmental and economic cost of shifting tonnes of micronutrients from Western countries on a permanent basis, while at the same time destroying local food systems.
Dr. Sylvia Karpagam is a public health doctor and researcher working with the Right to Food and Right to Health campaigns in India.
The subcontinent is often stereotyped by the West as a vegetarian utopia, where transcendental wisdom, longevity, and asceticism go hand in hand.
Earlier this year, the EAT-Lancet Commission released its global report on nutrition and called for a global shift to a more plant based diet: “The scientific targets set by this Commission provide guidance for the necessary shift, which consists of increasing consumption of plant-based foods and substantially reducing consumption of animal source foods”.
In the specific Indian context, the call to consume less animal foods has a special significance because it could become a tool to aggravate an already vexing political situation and stress already under nourished Indians.
Worryingly, the EAT report feeds into the false premise that ‘traditional diets’ in countries like India include little red meat which might be consumed only on special occasions or as minor ingredients of mixed dishes.
In India, however, there is a vast difference between what people would wish to consume and what they have to consume because of innumerable barriers around caste, religion, culture, cost, geography, etc. Policy makers in India have traditionally pushed for a cereal heavy ‘vegetarian diet’ on a meat-eating population as a way of providing cheapest sources of food.
The report says that legume consumption has traditionally been high in many cultures, such as India. Legumes are also expensive, provide low protein quality, are limited by poor digestibility and long cooking time. Often people consume watery legume gruel and that too, if it is available through the public distribution system, which is often erratic. They neither provide best quality proteins nor are they consumed in sufficient amounts.
Currently, food politics in India spearheads an aggressive new Hindu nationalism that has led to many of India’s meat eating minority communities being treated as inferior. Muslims, Christians, Dalits and Adivasis are overtly and covertly coerced into giving up their traditional foods to fit into a vegetarian Hindu identity.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Rather than addressing chronic hunger and malnutrition through an improved access to wholesome and nutrient-dense foods, the government is thus opening the door for company-dependent solutions.
What is conveniently being ignored here are the environmental and economic cost of shifting tonnes of micronutrients from Western countries on a permanent basis, while at the same time destroying local food systems.
Dr. Sylvia Karpagam is a public health doctor and researcher working with the Right to Food and Right to Health campaigns in India.
