WHEN environmentalist Vandana Shiva started Navdanya Café in Delhi in early 2000 or thereabouts, the wholesome menu and organic values were a novelty. The café evoked curiosity. Those were still the days of burgers, fries and fizzy drinks. White rice and Green Revolution wheat were staples in middle-class households and ghee had been taken off kitchen shelves because it was believed to cause heart disease.
Shiva was promoting a reversal, a return to roots. She was asking India to go back to a food culture which she emphasized was healthy, tasty and would conserve India. . .