🌎In the fourth chapter of Srimad Bhagavad Gita it is said that "Food Brahm The soul of man resides in the Brahm body (i.e. the temple of Brahm) and food (Brahm) is offered to that soul (Brahm) for its nourishment." (Verse 24). In broad sense, not only human beings, but all living souls need food. In our Hindu culture, before consuming food, it is a tradition to bow down and remember the giver of food (Brahma) and thank him. Food is God's divine gift and just as plants die without water, human body cannot survive without food. Considering its importance, there is a taboo in our culture on sprinkling or piling food and it is considered an act against religion. About 40% of food is wasted today in a country that had such a deep concern for the welfare of mankind about 5,161 years ago. The amount of wastage during the production, storage and transportation of food is high, but even among the amount of food that reaches home, on an average, every Indian wastes about 50 kg of food every year (Food Waste Index Report 2021, UNEP)! On the other hand, approximately 19 to 20 crore people are victims of malnutrition in our country. Although we have focused enough attention on this problem in the current century, India ranks 101 out of 116 countries in an international survey of the state of hunger. Its score is 27.5 (zero is best) which indicates that the situation is severe (Global Hunger Index, 2021),
🌎Globally, one-third of the food produced/intended for human consumption is wasted, estimated at 1.3 billion tonnes (worth Rs 80,000 billion) annually. Three billion people can be fed from this amount! Food waste in European countries can satisfy the hunger of 200 million people, 300 million people in Latin America and another 300 million people in Africa: 670 million tons of food is wasted in developed countries every year, while 630 million tons in developing countries! A major problem in developing countries is inadequate infrastructure for safe harvesting, transportation, storage and distribution of crops in the field, which accounts for 40% of total food wastage. While up to 40% of food waste occurs at the retail and consumer consumption levels in developed countries, appearance often plays a major role. There, external appearance, color, smell, etc. are given so much importance in the criteria of quality that often good and usable items and food items are thrown away as junk. According to an estimate, 60 million tons of fruits and vegetables are thrown away every year in America alone because they do not look good! Often it is also seen that the consumers get confused in understanding the labels that have been put on the food item by the manufacturer as Best Before and Use By.
🌎Today, food wastage is a major environmental challenge. Chief among the environmental challenges that arise due to this deterioration is the emission of green house gases that are responsible for global warming. One-third of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions are due to food being wasted or wasted. According to statistics, this amount (4.4 billion metric tons) is considered third after countries like China and America! (Although all the countries of the world contribute to it.) In a country like America, natural waste emits the most methane gas which is 80 times more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide! This natural waste mostly arises from food wastage. A quarter of our total global water use is already used to produce the amount of food we waste every year, creating a huge imbalance between supply and demand in the water sector as well. If we stop food wastage, this huge amount of water will also be saved which can satisfy 9 billion people even if we give 200 liter per capita per day, and the total population of the world is 7.9 billion! The food wastage can be considered as 18% wastage of arable land, 21% wastage of fresh water, 19% wastage of fertilizer. 30% wastage has been reported in cereals, 40-50% in other crops and fruits and vegetables, 20% in oilseeds, dairy products and meat and 35% in fish. That is, out of the fish caught/killed by humans for their food, one-third of the fish die without any reason! (In European countries, 40 to 60% of fish are thrown away because they do not meet supermarket quality standards!) Human efforts to preserve all these foods longer (cold storage, etc.) pose more and more risks to the environment.
🌎In the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that have been set for the sustainable development of mankind, prevention of food wastage is also given priority and efforts are being made in that direction. Globally every year on September 29th the day for "Food Waste and Loss Awareness" and October 16th "World Food Day" are celebrated but for the 800 million people suffering from hunger/malnutrition it is all futile unless there is something in their stomachs. . By 2050, the world population is expected to reach 9 billion and to feed it, the current food production needs to increase by 70%. In doing so, additional risks to the environment are bound to arise. These potential hazards can also be avoided if our efforts to prevent food waste are effective.
🌎Legally speaking, France was the first country to enact a law for this. We have brought a law under Article 47 of the Indian Constitution in 2018 with the aim of reducing food waste mandatorily. Many non-governmental organization are active in the field of prevention of food wastage. For example, "No Food Waste", an organization that started in Coimbatore in October 2014 by taking only two bags of excess and delivering it to the needy people in a public transport bus, which today operates in many cities, Robin Food Army, Mumbai's Roti Bank, Feezing India etc. It achieves two goals - preventing food wastage and feeding the hungry. There are 15 to 20 such organization functioning in our Ahmedabad alone which work to satisfy the hunger of many by preventing food wastage in social gatherings and social events. Once in Ahmedabad itself, in a big spousal selection convention, despite the buffet lunch, an elder was stopping the people when they came to put the plate and was standing over him feeding the person with the extra grain so that the second time A person should think twice while serving food in a plate! Such dedicated volunteers are needed - even if they don't make big claims of reducing methane gas emissions or curbing global warming, they are to be commended!
0 Comments