Lighthouse

Author(s): Udayvallabhvijay
Publisher: Pragna Prabodh Parivar

Page 40

* Cooked but unconsumed food which is wasted adds to
330 crore tons of disastrous green house gases. Food grains produced but which are not consumed by anyone uses 30% of agricultural land (140 crore hectare) the world over. The water used for cooking of such food which is not consumed by anyone and gets wasted is equivalent to the total water reserves of Volga river in Russia or three times the water reserves of Geneva lake. Those who criticize a small amount of food grains offering on the wooden plank in temples would hardly be aware of the above facts. The Chief of FAO explains the main reason behind this world wide wastage, saying it is due to the vicious consumerism of the rich
and the neo-rich in the world. The UPA government hurriedly passed the food security bill just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with the object of ensuring food security for the poor. A country where 17,546 tons of food grains are wasted, needs food security and not food security bill. If we consider the average daily food grain requirements to be 250 gm. per person, this wastage could feed seven crore empty stomachs. This is India. The earlier governments spent Rs. 75,366/crores after food subsidy over the years. (Whose money this was any way? Of course of the people who were forced to buy enormously costly food grains). However, no
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