No Magic can bring back wasted food

No Magic can bring back wasted food

No Magic can bring back wasted food. ( Displayed at  Academy of Magical sciences). From 12% waste of cooked food in the early eighties to 19% in the nineties and nearly 40% today, it is perhaps one of the most telling effects on the economy, agriculture and health. This means that nearly half of the food cooked is being wasted. It is no longer about the calories produced. It is now about the calories wasted.

Unlike in yesteryears when a housewife used to cook according to the family’s needs today’s household produce a great deal of food, that eventually ends up in the waste bin. What is cooked is now more a matter of social prestige than as one to suit needs. Serving uneatable portion of food as a mark of affection, especially to young children. is another cause of waste in the Indian domestic scenario. Ideally food waste should only consist of unusable parts like bone bits, egg shells and peeled skins

What are the ill effects that such loss can bring about? It effects the families economy adversely. No family can sustain a loss of half of its resources. In developing countries, like India, where starvation is still existent, forty percent loss of this most valuable of resources can have a back breaking effect. Socially, this is one of the biggest dividers between the haves and have nots. The common sense understanding that the food you wasted could well have been a child’s lone meal of the day holds good.

Wasting food can adversely affect the environment too. One of the causes for the excess of greenhouse gases, like methane is the rotting of unused cooked food. It also add to the phosphate content of the soil making it unsuitable for any form of cultivation. The contamination of groundwater sources biologically and chemically is another major source of concern.

Todays society thrives on overuse principles, in an intent to enhance their values in front of peers. Yet very few understand that any excess food can be used to feed starving people. Old fashioned as it may sound, feeding a hungry mouth is perhaps the greatest deed of all. It may also be a great method to cook to need and not to show. The possible consumption should determine the quantum of production.

Ultimately, especially in India,  the lady of the house knows the consumption of the family and cooks to suit the need. She may even have stowed away food for tomorrow, rather than chuck all unused food into the garbage bin.

Food cannot be allowed to be wasted. It hurts the whole world. It may be worthwhile remembering the starving child when you waste food at all.