“Food Waste”
According to Ismail Serageldin: “the hungry is a silent holocaust that costs thousands of lives and still does not generate commotion or debate”.
Today, I want to talk seriously about wasting food. And to talk about it, I thought interesting make a mention of Alfred Nobel, the man of the Nobel Prize, also known as the dynamite’s father. I’m not sure if everybody knows that Nobel made a vast fortune from his creations that were used for war purposes. Maybe as a way to redeem himself from the impacts of your creations, he decided in his last year of his life to let on a testament that his richness must be distributed to people who make a positive contribution to the humanity. Because of that Nobel Foundation every year selects and awards people, institutions, foundations that honor this legacy. Last year, the winners of this prize were the UN’s World Food Programme for their efforts to combat hunger. This year, the nominee for the award for Brazil is the former minister Alysson Paolinelli, founder of Embrapa, which in the 70’ became Brazil from importer to exporter of food. Today Brazil provides food to near to one billion people around the world and it is estimated that in next years contributes within 2/3 of the demand.
Nevertheless the same country that foods millions of people on the planet is one on the top of the wasting ranking. We are talking of 41 thousand of tonnes of food that are daily thrown on the waste, while 821 millions of people living in precarious situation, which tends to be worse, as the population growths and the Pandemic became more grave. Just to have an idea, this amount of wasted food could foods daily 25 millions of hungry, whose achieve 9 billion at year.
A review was made at the government of the former president Michel Temer, in alliance with some countries of European Union and institutions that measured the individual waste of brazilian people. They concluded that individually throw around, 4,07 oz on the waste daily, which result in an annual wasting of 91,7 lb. And the most wasted food, believe, are rice, meat and beans. Note that they are an high nutritional value foods within a high cost to the people.
And the results of that to the society are devastating. We are talking about environmental, mental, social impacts, as an example, increase of violence and intellectual delay in individuals that living in vulnerability situation. Researches demonstrate that children malnourished tend to have a low intellectual and cognitive development, irreversible effects that make the poverty cycle perpetuate.
But is possible to improve that! Today I want to invite you to rethink the way as you deal with the food with easy, useful attitude that can be inserted on the routine, as an example, avoid to put more food on the plate, because there is a great probability that you will throw the surplus on the waste and the excessive consume make cause serious health problem’s, as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, to mention but three.
Use peels, seeds and stalk because they have a high concentration of nutrients. Prefer season’s foods because they are more durable, nutritious and also cheaper. Support local producers because while you help the regional economy the path of the food are reduced, minimizing, in this way, potential damages. These and others attitudes contribute to make food cheaper and accessible to everyone.
To end up, I want highlight a quote of ad Spanish chef Jose Andres who was nominee to the Nobel Prize in 2019 for help victims of natural disasters. He said: “Every bit of food wasted represents a meal that we didn’t serve to someone in need. Wasted food is a wasted opportunity”.
I wish that this content has made you aware of our responsibility on this issue…
