On January 30th 2016, Gandhi’s martyrdom day, Navdanya was joined by numerous Gandhian and farmers’ groups in the launch of the Satyagraha for Gandhi’s Ghani to defend nutrition rich traditional oils and boycott toxic soya oil being dumped on Indians through ‘Free Trade’

With the death of the ghanis, traditional oilseeds are bound to die. We are at risk of not only losing out our diverse food culture, but also the tastes of home. All our cooking requires traditional oils such as mustard, sesame, linseed, coconut etc.- each with it’s own benefits.

The satyagraha for Gandhi’s Ghani is also one that fights for our culture. No industrial substitute has the properties of mustard to preserve and flavour our pickles, or give the pungent tang to our food and puffed rice preparations(our masala muri and our bhate bhath)

Hydrogenated vegetable oils do not possess the medicinal ayurvedic qualities of traditional oils, and will be foreign to our culture and our fire rituals. They contain transfats which are hazardous to health and have been banned in the United States