Wednesday, June 30, 2021

THE PARADOX OF FOOD FIXATION IN ECONOMICS OF CONSUMPTION


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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