Blog: Starvation Versus Food Wasting

Sangeeta Sahay

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. To create a ‘sustainable food system’, there is a need to prevent food wastage on priority. This will ensure food security and nutrition as well as better utilization of natural resources.

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. In our country 40% of the food production is wasted.

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.

Significantly, the problem of food waste 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.

Wastage of raw and cooked food grains is one of the root causes of starvation across the world including India. According to UNEP report, 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. On the problem of world hunger, famous Italian chef Massimo Bottura says, ‘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.

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. To create a ‘sustainable food system’, there is a need to prevent food wastage on 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.

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 in the fields itself, rotting, rotting, rotting, due to rats and other organisms, lack of proper management of storage of grains, etc. is also a major 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.

To prevent food wastage, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India launched a program called ‘Save Food, Share Food, Joy Food’ in December 2017. 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.

In order to ensure that the food being distributed is safe, the authority also notified the Food Safety and Standards (Recovery and Distribution of Surplus Food) Regulations 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.

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. Small changes can be brought about by small measures such as preparing food that is suitable for use in homes, hotels or functions etc., banning unlimited types of food, taking only as much food in the plate as is eaten, ordering food as per the need while visiting hotels, avoiding unnecessary storage of food items etc.

Social consciousness is most important in preventing food wastage. 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 ‘Sustainable Development 2030’ agenda. 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.