Production ,Consumption and waste management are the three important components
of any Economy.Consumption is more elastic than Production and waste can be
recycled for consumption are the corner stones on which successful economies
hinge.
Increase in Population means increased Consumption an important
aspect of human affairs; there are various kinds of consumption and the most
important component is Food Consumption a key driver of economies. Economists
like Amartaya Sen have tried to concentrate their studies on food economics
around the world and Globalized economies of today influence the production and
consumption of food on a global scale.When we say Food Economics the focus is
on two things. Firstly the prevention of Poverty and Secondly the control of
food wastage and recycling it for consumption.
The challenge of the Globalized World would be to reach a state
of zero poverty and at the same time keep the overall cost of food low and both
go hand in hand. One of the reasons of Poverty can be traced to the phenomenon
of ‘Food Fixation”.What is food fixation? It is the belief of communities
that food entails just a set of items they are habituated to consume and the
general lack of awareness of other forms of palatable food that would equally serve
the purpose. Imagine a man trapped in a jungle. He has no source of food which
he calls food. He has no access to food creating a situation of Poverty..poverty not because of economic
circumstances but from a lack of awareness.There might be many shrubs that
could be temporary food .Incidentally the definition of food is something when
consumed gives energy with no side-effects. Just to survive he could kill some
animal for food…..just stating as an example. Poverty in his context is from a
lack of awareness than from economic circumstances. The world at large suffers
from this fixation from which it has to be un-entangled and various kinds of
food supply chains can be created around the world that reduce the cost of
food.
The United Nations as an organ could help in this context by
making it mandatory for International flights to carry food of various
kinds from one destination to another free of cost where-ever possible. Such an
activity would address poverty and reduce the cost of food by harmonizing
consumption. Wastes of various kinds engendered around the world must be
harmonized in a collective way and converted into some form of food for
distribution world –wide.This needs a concerted effort from Governments of
Countries at large under the aegis of the United Nations.Plants convert waste
into food a most fragrant component of nature and such dynamics have to be
globally exploited.
In short Food Fixation is the belief of communities that a
certain set of items only constitute food to exception of other possibilities
and should be remedied through global interactions to expand this set to other
possibilities too, so that communities can accept various kinds and sets of
food there-by broad basing consumption and bringing down global inflation.
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