World Food Day
Today marks the anniversary of the creation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. The theme for this year is: Food prices from crisis to stability.
Everyone must have noticed that the price of food in the supermarket has soared in the last few years. Being pretty thrifty when it comes to shopping I remember being proud of myself when I could do a £30 weekly shop. There is absolutely no way of that happening today.
The big problem is that if I have noticed this, me, living in the affluent west, what effect has this had on the millions of families around the world (just under half the world population) who are living on less than $2 a day and many, many more are living just above this level?
There is no easy solution, and definitely not anything my mind can comprehend but everyone of us can do a little something.
We can :-
I'm finishing this post with a quote from celebrity chef and campaigner, Jamie Oliver and his TED lecture Teach every child about food.
Everyone must have noticed that the price of food in the supermarket has soared in the last few years. Being pretty thrifty when it comes to shopping I remember being proud of myself when I could do a £30 weekly shop. There is absolutely no way of that happening today.
The big problem is that if I have noticed this, me, living in the affluent west, what effect has this had on the millions of families around the world (just under half the world population) who are living on less than $2 a day and many, many more are living just above this level?
There is no easy solution, and definitely not anything my mind can comprehend but everyone of us can do a little something.
We can :-
- sign the Petition to End Hunger - the 1 Billion hungry campaign.
- Be mindful of where are food is comes from - education is always the key.
- Eat less meat.
- Cutting down on food miles. Choose more locally produced food.
- Learn how to cook and make wise choices. Simple as that.
At the other end of the spectrum, but LINKED, is the growing levels of obesity in the West. The subject is even entering politics with the British government announcing an initiative to cut 5bn calories from Britons' daily diet. The Prime Minister, David Cameron even mentioned the possibility of introducing a fat tax on food.
I am totally against any talk of this. Poor people don't need to be taxed even more - energy price hikes. The sad reality is that it is much cheaper to fill up on high carbohydrate/high fat processed food than it is with fresh produce. What are you tempted to feed your hungry kids as an after-school snack? A packet of Custard creams biscuits for 36p compared to a bag of 6 apples at £2? What needs to happen instead is the introduction of massively subsidized fruit and vegetables - especially home grown varieties!
I'm finishing this post with a quote from celebrity chef and campaigner, Jamie Oliver and his TED lecture Teach every child about food.
"The power of food has a primal place in our home, that binds us to the best bits of life." - Jamie Oliver."
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