Food Crisis! Food Crisis! Food Crisis!
We know that there are 850 million people who go to bed without food everyday (U.N. food agency)! Are we doing anything about it? Do we realise that our KITCHEN WASTAGE is one of the cause of food crisis?
I am asking myself first what if I was among the 850 million? I asked my friends too! And they said to me ‘hey come on, don’t be silly! Why worry when we are not affected by the World Food Crisis. It affects only the poor people. As long as we have enough money we don’t have to worry, we can afford to buy and waste’.
Yes, that’s what most of us think. We cannot compromise with yesterday’s left over food. That should go in the bin! We always want fresh food everyday. Can’t see the fridge being empty. It should be always filled with lots of food and drinks, don’t care whether we really need it or not! What is the point in buying everything and storing it in the fridge for months? Seriously, sometimes we don’t even know what is going out of date in the fridge. Finally it is binned!
If husbands query, ‘why are you putting in the bin?’ We have an answer ready ‘Hmm, Come on, it’s expired long back and there is no space in the fridge to store what I have bought today!’
Not only that we serve our kids so much food, we know they don’t have capacity to eat the quantity that we served, still we force them to eat and finally it goes in the bin. Don’t you think the kids are watching and are quick to learn at this age?
For some people, cooking in abundance for a party is a prestigious issue. There is a saying, ‘there should always be enough food in your vessels even after the party winds off. Vessels shouldn’t be empty in any house or at a party!’
I think we have to bring and cook what we want and make use of it without wasting it. From today before we bend our backs to dump extra food in the bin, let’s pause for a few seconds and think ‘What about those 850 Million people?’ If we continue wasting food I am sure we will be in that number soon!
Ashuntha Pereira, Gantalkatte, UK
Author: Ashuntha Pereira- UK