Love food, Hate Waste

06/6/2014

With my political understanding in food security and developmental discourse, I have a great pleasure in writing about it.

Food is necessary for survival of each and every individual and is thus a basic human right. In our growing need to acquire all the luxuries of life, somewhere our desire to devour good food is also increasing. There is huge inequity between the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural, you and me.

“Food, Clothing, Shelter” are considered as basic amenities for human survival, which are easily accessible to the rich, but what about the poor? Poor and/or the agricultural farmers still don't have availability, accessibility and affordability to food. With time, food amenities have become a commodity. For the farmer himself, crops like wheat, rice, maize which are easily accessible to them on their farms, are now sold at heavy price rates. Question of securing food and right to food has become a major political issue. Nutrition levels are still stagnant, calorie consumption has declined, and hunger is still persistent and unacceptably widespread. My concern: Is there an end to this acute starvation and inequity?

Government inaction and indifference has to be redressed by citizen participation and vigilance.

Rethinking and reflecting on the concerns of the subaltern is to be done by each of us. In ensuring food security, agriculture sector can't be ignored; allocation of budget to agriculture still remains minimal. Agriculture production will need to be increased by 70% in order to meet the demand.

Right to water in context of right to food is a complex question. Water is the key to food security.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

? J.R.R. Tolkien