Rising Hunger and Food Waste Around the World

27.07.2023

 

Rising Hunger and Food Waste Around the World

Mains Exam: General Studies Paper 3

(Environment protection)

27 JULY,2023

Foreword:

  • The problem of hunger is a paradoxical reality of India, which is fast developing and poised to become an economic superpower. Crores of people in the country do not get enough food every day. That is, on the one hand the number of billionaires and trillionaires is increasing, and on the other hand crores of people are cursed to sleep hungry. 40% of our food production is wasted here.
  • Significantly, the problem of food wastage and hunger is global. According to statistics, in 2021, the number of people suffering from hunger in the world will increase to 830 million. Not only this, more than three billion people do not have access to healthy food. This problem of hunger becomes more ironic when a large part of the world's population is suffering from food shortage, while on the other hand food is also being wasted on a very large scale.

Status of Food Wastage and Hunger on a Global scale:

  • According to the report of the United Nations Environment Program, China ranks first in the world in terms of food wastage. Every year 96 million tonnes of food is wasted here. India ranks second, where 68.7 million tonnes of food is wasted annually.
  • According to famous Italian chef Massimo Bottura, 'Food is produced for about 12 billion people in the world, while the population is 8 billion. Despite this, about 86 crore people go hungry. We waste 33 per cent of our production.
  • According to another report, 128 million tonnes of food is wasted in India every year. This includes waste in households, at events, as well as waste in retail and food services. We waste 68.8 million tonnes of food annually in households alone, 21.4 million tonnes in retail outlets and 37.8 million tonnes in food services annually.
  • According to the food wastage index of UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), every person in Indian households wastes fifty kilos of food annually, which is equivalent to a total of Rs 92,000 crore across the country.

Causes of Food Wastage and Starvation:

  • Wastage of raw and cooked food grains is one of the root causes of starvation across the world including India.
  • The problem of food wastage in India is structural as well as habitual. In our society, there is co-dining on marriages, chhathi-mundan, festivals etc. There is a lot of wastage of food in these. The 'buffet system' and 'starter' served before the meal, which have become a common practice since the last two-three decades, have increased this problem manifold. Apart from the wastage of food grains in homes, hotels, restaurants, food services etc., a large amount of food grains is also wasted while reaching from farm to home and godowns.
  • Due to ripening, rotting, rotting, rotting, rotting, rats and other organisms in the fields, lack of proper management of keeping grains, etc. is also a big reason for this. With increasing economic efficiency, eating at weekend hotels has become a status symbol today. People take pride in leaving food there. In houses where both the husband and wife are working, the kitchen is run solely on the help of the maid. There is no one to tell the importance of food even to the children. In such a situation, it is easy to lose the emotional relationship towards food. Due to increasing social insensitivity, the sense of respect that our elders had towards each and every grain of food is ending.

Impact on Environment:

  • Food wastage has a direct impact on the environment. Rotten and spoiled food accounts for up to 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. This produces harmful methane gas. It is also responsible for situations like flood and drought and it is also having a negative effect on the production of food grains.

Efforts of Government of India to control food wastage:

  • In December 2017, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India launched a program called 'Save Food, Share Food, Joy Food' to prevent food wastage. The aim was to spread awareness about preventing wastage of food and sharing it with the needy. For this, it was targeted to involve different food distribution agencies and other stakeholders.
  • To ensure that the food being distributed is safe, the authority also notified the Food Safety and Standards (Recovery and Distribution of Surplus Food) Exchange in July 2019. That is, through this regulation, the authority made rules to prevent wastage of food in different establishments and businesses and to encourage food donation. Implementation of these rules was made mandatory for all people doing food business.
  • In the past, there was talk of adding lessons related to the use of food grains and measures to stop their wastage in the school curriculum. This will sensitize young students on this subject. This may be a small step to prevent food wastage, but if implemented properly, the impact will be huge in the times to come. It can be an important step to re-establish India's ancient culture of preventing wastage of food in the Indian mind. On June 7, 2019, for the first time, on the occasion of International Food Safety Day, the Government of India gave a call to make 'Eat Less, Eat Healthy' a mass movement.

Measures to Control Food Wastage:

  • To create a 'sustainable food system', there is a need to stop the wastage of food with priority. This will ensure food security and nutrition as well as better utilization of natural resources. The United Nations says that stopping food waste is essential to addressing the climate and food crisis.
  • These steps are important, but not sufficient, to prevent food waste. There is a need to break the chain of wastage of food grains at various levels from production, supply, maintenance to consumption. This requires awareness and sensitivity. The schemes run by the government will be successful only when its information reaches maximum number of people and they become aware. What is most important is to stop the wastage of food at home and at various functions.
  • The Supreme Court of the country had also issued directions for meaningful initiatives in this regard. People can do this work on a large scale by bringing changes in their thinking and lifestyle. Cooking food only for use in homes, hotels or functions etc., banning unlimited types of food, taking only as much food as is eaten in the plate, ordering food as per requirement when visiting hotels, unnecessarily avoiding food storage Big changes can be brought about by small measures like avoiding.

Conclusions:

  • Social consciousness is most important in preventing wastage of food. Along with the government system, social and religious institutions can play an important role in the development of this consciousness. Food waste is such a big challenge for the whole world that it has also been included in the agenda of 'Sustainable Development 2030'. It aims to halve per capita food waste by 2030. Food is the biggest need of life, and it is the need of humanity to save it from getting wasted.

                                               -----------------------------------

                                                                 Mains Exam Question

Worldwide, food wastage has increased hunger and polluted the environment. Suggest effective measures to solve this problem.