Beyond the Sattvik plate: Prof Anil Gupta's take on food, ethics, and sustainability

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a rather lengthy comment (I don't want to call it a rejoinder) on my blog post about the Sattvik Food Festival, held near the Sola Temple in Ahmedabad late last year. It came from no less a person than Anil Gupta, Professor Emeritus at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), under whose guidance this annual event was held.

While I have taken his comment in the comments section of my news blog – where he originally posted his critical remarks – I believe they deserve a wider audience, so I am quoting him here as well. One of the most socially conscious academics, Professor Gupta begins by thanking me for visiting Sattvik but regrets that I "unintentionally" overlooked the organic farmers who were "selling fresh as well as processed food made mostly by farmers."

He provides examples, stating that at the Sattvik Food Festival, there were "some conservators of seed diversity," including Priya from Tamil Nadu who had "brought fifty varieties of tomatoes" and Lalu Bhai from Sonepat who brought local varieties of vegetables collected during "shodhyatras."

Professor Gupta's "shodhyatras," or research journeys, are known to focus on "the search for knowledge, creativity, and innovations at the grassroots," according to a website he manages. He has conducted 51 of these journeys across India.

At the same time, Professor Gupta acknowledges that the Sattvik Food Festival did not allow "non-vegetarian foods," which he describes as "our bias, you may say." However, he insists, "It is not to exclude anybody. If that was the case, then people from Kashmir, Sikkim, and dishes from Nagaland would not have found a place in the GIAN (Gujarat Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network)-supported stall of LHC" (Little Himalayan Co.)."

Taking the "argument of inclusion to an absurd limit," he asks, "Will you then not complain that communities which consume animals that many of us care for and love are not represented? There are tribal communities which eat ants, as we found in Bastar, and they also deserve mention. Can we have vegetarian food without feeling guilty about not being able to eat non-vegetarian food?" He answers: "I think we can."

While all communities have the complete freedom to eat anything they are morally permitted to consume, Professor Gupta wonders, "Can any one platform serve all of them?" He points out that his initiatives such as the Honey Bee Network, the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), SRISTI innovations (primarily Ramesh and Chetan Patel), which organized Sattvik and GIAN and brought Himalayan communities to the Ahmedabad festival, "tried to create a market for the farmers who are conserving soil health and producing non-chemical-based food products."

He emphasizes that these initiatives also "tried to create consumer awareness about traditional foods, particularly those using millets," describing it as a "small effort without any outside support or sponsors for the last 22 years." He adds, "It seems that it is serving a small purpose... How can we serve all social goals with a single instrument?"

Professor Gupta notes that he and his organization, GIAN, had a stall at Chaos, the annual cultural festival held at IIM-A from January 9 to 12, 2025, which "had non-vegetarian dishes from Kashmir." However, he insists, "But let Sattvik remain vegetarian," underscoring that "the carbon footprint of a vegetarian diet is much smaller than non-vegetarian diets."

In this context, Professor Gupta cites a study, "The carbon footprint of common vegetarian and non‑vegetarian meals in Portugal: an estimate, comparison, and analysis," published in "The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment," which states, "All environmental indicators showed a positive association with amounts of animal-based food consumed. Dietary impacts of vegans were 25.1% (95% uncertainty interval, 15.1–37.0%) of high meat-eaters (≥100 g total meat consumed per day) for greenhouse gas emissions, 25.1% (7.1–44.5%) for land use, 46.4% (21.0–81.0%) for water use, 27.0% (19.4–40.4%) for eutrophication and 34.3% (12.0–65.0%) for biodiversity."

He also refers to a study titled, "Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show discrepant environmental impacts," and an answer to an unstarred Rajya Sabha question as an Indian reference to further support his argument.

Professor Gupta concludes with the following advice: "Having said this, we respect the right of all communities to consume what they prefer and can afford. We only wish them to be healthy, agile, and responsible for the environment. Meat-eaters may save more water and conserve more forest and thus compensate for a slightly higher carbon footprint. Many farmers of crops waste water and other material resources, and that needs correction as well."

With due respect to Professor Gupta's argument, I have always wondered: Isn't non-vegetarianism often looked down upon by those in power as something "impure" or "non-sattvik"? Shouldn't someone hold a festival to challenge this myth, especially considering its underlying caste implications, particularly in Gujarat, his "karmabhoomi" (place of work)?