Donate to charities like Akshaya Patra to prevent food wastage

In a nation where millions of people do not have access to even clean drinking water, around 25 per cent of the fresh water used to produce food is wasted, it should shock many of us awake if we calculate the astonishing figures. It has been estimated to be equivalent to an average river flowing in India.

An estimate by the US's Department of Agriculture, though the world produces enough food to feed twice the present population, food wastage is behind malnourishment of millions of people across many countries. The number of hungry people in India has increased by 65 million, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This number is as much as or more than many of the other nations.

One of the NGOs in Bangalore, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, has been making all efforts to minimise the wastage of food in the running of its school lunch programme; starting with the way they are stored, to the way they are cooked and distributed.

Land use

Hundreds of thousands of acres of land are deforested to grow food every year. Approximately, 45 per cent of India’s land is degraded, primarily due to deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices and excessive groundwater use to meet the demand for food. In the last two years, though, India has retained and increased its forest area by more than 14,000 hectares (second largest after China).

A shocking story is that of the nation having edible oil as its third largest import. But, the wastage of food is said to lead to around 300 million barrels of oil used to produce food ultimately going waste due to the wastage of such food. According to a paper, India is said to waste as much food as that consumed by the United Kingdom.

This is not a palatable statistic when we realise that millions still sleep hungry on the streets

Tackling the Food Wastage

According to the UN body of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), food wastage is fast assuming serious dimensions. According to an FAO statistic, a staggering 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted annually.

Many of the social reasons also play a role in this. All the social functions and social joints in India, especially in the northern and central parts, functions such as weddings, the canteens, hotels, social and family functions, households, end up wasting a lot of food.

The money one may spend in buying the food which goes unutilised can be used to sponsor a child instead. It is to be noted that food wastage can cripple a country’s economy much more seriously than we realise.

The world's largest NGO-run mid-day meal programme serves wholesome school lunch to over 1.6 million children in 13,800+ schools across 12 States in India. This amount can be used to feed the starving millions in the country.

One could donate to charity to help causes like the one supported by Akshaya Patra.

While we may not be able to reduce food lost during production, we can certainly reduce food wastage at our personal level.