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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Wasting food

Wasting food

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published Published on Jun 30, 2011   modified Modified on Jun 30, 2011
-The Business Standard

There are better ways to curb it than a Guest Control Order

No one can deny that in a country like India, wasting food and ostentatious consumption at social gatherings are a social crime. A social movement espousing moderation in consumption habits would instantly strike a chord with a large number of Indians. Also, few would deny that India’s newly rich and upwardly mobile like to indulge in conspicuous consumption to show off to their peers and neighbours that they have arrived. From your neighbourhood get-rich-quick real estate broker to the new billionaires, everyone who has come into wealth likes to show off, especially at family events like a wedding or a birthday party. So, the idea of promoting temperance and moderation, of campaigning against wastage, is well taken. Yet, visible prosperity of the upwardly mobile has the positive social externality of encouraging the less energetic to work harder and be smarter. “Enrich yourself”, the famous slogan attributed to China’s great moderniser Deng Xiaoping, can spur enterprise and growth. So a campaign against conspicuous consumption will have its advocates and critics. However, few would suggest that reviving the old 1960’s Guest Control Order (GCO), introduced in an era of war, drought and “ship-to-mouth” dependence on imported food, is the best way to address the problem of food going to waste. Yet, and perhaps not surprisingly, an official group headed by secretary, consumer affairs, Government of India, constituted to suggest ways to address the problem of food wastage at public gatherings and social functions, is considering a revival of GCO. Few today may recall that GCO bred corruption and contributed to needless harassment and to hypocritical response from those who obeyed the law in theory and ignored it in practice.

The fact is that the real wastage of food is happening between farm and the retail market. Post-harvest loss of foodgrain has been recently estimated to be as much as Rs 44,000 crore a year. Worse, between 30 and 50 per cent of all fruit and vegetables produced in the country are spoiled at various stages of their handling, and at least one study calculates the loss to be almost Rs 28,000 crore. Besides, huge quantities of foodgrain perish every year owing to rot and mismanagement at the godowns of the Food Corporation of India. At present, over five million tonnes of foodgrain are officially stated to be lying in the premises of government godowns without proper shelter, running the risk of spoilage in the ongoing monsoon season. Compared to all this, the total wastage of cooked food at social events would be peanuts, so to speak! The best way to deal with food wastage by the rich is to launch a social awareness campaign against conspicuous consumption, addressed to school children and young adults. The young can be great agents of change.

The Business Standard, 30 June, 2011, http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/wasting-food/440905/


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