FILL YOUR PLATES WITH ONLY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ACTUALLY EAT....

Friends, I came across this very disturbing news of 3 girls (aged 8, 4 & 2 years) having died in an East Delhi hospital, succumbing to ‘hunger & starvation'. And the doctors who examined them opined that “There was no trace of fat on their bodies. Postmortem showed the stomach was absolutely empty. It’s a case of gross malnutrition".

And ever since I have come across this news I feel literally ashamed (on myself) to be a part of a community which can not ensure that its members (particularly its children - so proudly reckoned as the future of any society) don't die of hunger & starvation, of all the things.

See, it would be important to note here that hunger isn't about a lack of food. Right now, the world produces enough food to nourish every man, woman and child on the planet.

Now, the question arises that what causes a wide spread starvation (if not paucity of feed) which ironically results in this unfortunate loss of precious lives due to hunger.

Various studies carried-out from time to time, have revealed that along with chronic poverty, conflicts and lack of resources, food waste is one of the root causes of hunger as nearly one third of all the food produced every year is either spoiled, squandered or wasted before it can be consumed. And it would be noteworthy here that consumers waste almost as much food as the entire net food production of many small countries put together.

An eye opening revelation had been made by a report cited in CSR journal. It says “Indians waste as much food as the whole of United Kingdom consumes”. In a nation like India where millions still sleep hungry on streets, it’s pathetic piece of statistic.

It’s hard to believe that, in a country where 65 million people (higher than population of many countries) face hunger every day, so much food could go uneaten. Yet, this is precisely what is happening – and we’re all to be blamed for this sickening truth. Perfectly good food in large quantities (sufficient to serve millions of people's daily needs) is being wasted at every level of the supply chain: on the farm, during distribution, at the stores and in our homes, restaurants, hotels & most of it at our lavish functions like weddings and all.

And with absolute due respect, our tendency to fill more in our plates than we can actually eat and the tradition of large-scaled and fat weddings are also playing a lead role in this fiasco and that only government policies (or lack of same) & administration failures alone not be held responsible for any such wastage.

And in addition to the enormous and very disturbing cost of invaluable human lives, our food waste epidemic is fast becoming an economic & environmental catastrophe, as well. As food wastage cripples a country’s economy to such an extent that most of us are not even aware of. If food is wasted, there is so much water (which is used in agriculture, manpower and electricity) gets wasted & lost in food processing industries. For example, in India where millions of people don't have access to clean drinking water around 25% of fresh water used to produce food is ultimately wasted. It will be shocking for many of us to know that if we calculate the figures in cubic kilo meters, this is a bit more than an average river flowing in India. And then, for a nation like ours whose third largest imports are edible oils, around 300 million barrels of oil which is used to produce food is ultimately wasted, due to wastage of such food.

Now, we take all of this into consideration, the total worth of money lost from food wastage per year (in India) is estimated at a whopping Rs 58,000 crore to over Rs 96,000 crore.

And here we are, having to live with this cruel & heart-wrenching reality of our fellow beings (particularly children) losing their lives due to hunger and starvation, the very thought of which makes our souls bleed.

Talking of solutions now, since approx. one fifth of food at social events goes waste, many city-based organisations are tackling this issue as some of these organisations collect excess/unconsumed food from parties and distribute it in the slum areas. Besides, on administrative levels, mega food parks are now being commissioned in India to increase the processing of perishable food. While other solutions could be using protective packaging for perishables; optimising food packaging; tapping & incentivising businesses that buy unwanted food produce directly from the distributors or manufacturers for discounted retail sale (like what Italy follows), expansion of secondary markets for items with cosmetic damage; tray-less dining, encouraging sale of off-grade produce etc. however a significant change in this unfortunate scenario could be brought about when the people at grass-root levels, would assume responsibility of making sure that no one in their neighborhood, in their localities (or the society on the whole), sleeps on empty stomach by contributing their personal bit towards looking after the hungry (and the needy) in whatever ways possible and by also ensuring that (behaving in a more civilised manner) they don't waste their food, which at times we end up doing inadvertently, and which can actually save many lives.

So, I suggest we should come forward to take responsibility to identify people in genuine need of such help (particularly they are not able to feed themselves and their children) and then making sure that they are supported in whatever ways possible whether through personal or pooled resources or alternatively we can form small groups in our localities who could then be entrusted with this responsibility (in spare time at least) to help the needy (& the hungry) much like we form our local patrolling groups to act as watch-guards in our neighborhood, when we have security threats & or some crisis situation etc. AND this my friends is no less than a 'CRISIS' in itself and we must rise up to this situation to make our contribution, shedding our apathy.

AND DO REMEMBER TO

....AND DON'T WASTE YOUR SURPLUS FOOD....