While we waste food 800 million people go hungry

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Tuesday marked World Food Day and in a statement the world body revealed the intolerable wrong of hunger where one person in nine does not have enough to eat.   

UN Secretary General António Guterres in a statement says that at present more than 815 million people do not have enough to eat. Some 155 million children under the age of five or 23 per cent are chronically malnourished and stunted and may endure the effects of it for the rest of their lives. Worldwide, one in two infant deaths is caused by hunger. This is intolerable. Zero hunger is about joining forces,” the UN Chief says calling for stronger political will and more financial support until everyone has enough and quality food.   

At the World Food Day ceremony in Rome speakers echoed the UN chief’s call to action to governments, companies, institutions and individuals.   

“People frequently ask me if I really believe that it is possible to eradicate hunger by 2030. My answer is yes, I do,” FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva said noting that his own country, Brazil, had been able to almost eliminate hunger in less than 10 years, from 11 per cent of the population in 2001, to about two per cent in 2010.   

“The struggle against hunger urgently demands generous financing, the abolition of trade barriers and, above all, greater resilience in the face of climate change, economic crises and warfare,” Pope Francis said in a message read on his behalf.   

Since its early years of existence, the UN has made tackling hunger and malnutrition one of its key priorities. Here are some of the ways the organization is contributing today to achieving zero hunger tomorrow;  Help small farmers produce more with less, Provide emergency food rations in humanitarian crises, End malnutrition, Focus on local economic systems, Develop vulnerability projections and analysis, Empower rural women and girls and Raise awareness and galvanize change.   

Despite the UN’s noble objectives and Pope Francis’ call for all major religions to work together and give top priority to the crisis of poverty alleviation what we see in the world today is the horror of about ten super billionaires having more than 50 per cent of the world’s wealth and resources. Even in Sri Lanka we see not only the super rich but even middle class people indulging in waste, luxury and extravagance including five-star weddings where they pay more than Rs.10,000 for a meal. Even some lower middle class people, influenced by this bad social example, borrow money at high interest rates to have five-star weddings and end up paying back the loans and interests for several years later thereby not having enough money to provide three meals a day, basic healthcare and education for their children.   

Several special events were held in Sri Lanka to mark World Food Day. President Maithripala Sirisena, who has taken a special interest in this subject, even held a meeting of the National Economic Council, which includes top Cabinet ministers and economists. A directive was issued to the Finance Ministry to compile and submit within a week a list of non-essential imported food items so that the imports could be stopped and measures taken to grow these items here.   

One area that the NEC needs to address is the import of powdered milk which reportedly costs a staggering Rs.100 million a day. Highly qualified nutritionists have said that powdered milk is largely fake or artificial though marketing agents mislead the people by claiming that if a particular brand is not given, the child’s knowledge cells will not work properly. This nonsense must be stopped and the government needs to take steps to revive our dairy milk industry which thrived till the 1980s when a big transnational company came here and systematically destroyed it.   

Not only milk, Sri Lanka has hundreds of nutritious vegetables and fruits which could be grown locally with organic fertiliser. The government needs to promote this on a large scale while eco-friendly and responsible citizens need to develop their home gardens by growing vegetables or fruit trees with the use of organic fertilizer. We hope the World Food Day will give us some food for thought.