Hello everyone, I'm so excited to express my thoughts on sustainable food practices given the fact that I'm a foodie myself ! I absolutely love food and I'm self-confessed connoisseur.

I'll be talking to you about a short video made my the United Nations Environment Programme on Sustainable Food. Here's the link - https://youtu.be/VcL3BQeteCc

Why should this video be taken seriously ?

The video emphasizes that we've 7.2 billion mouths to feed. By 2050, there will be an additional 2 billion people competing with the existing population for quality food. So, this is likely to overburden our already stressed and distressed agricultural sector. More importantly, 1 out of every 3 people have been identified as suffering from malnutrition. 794 million suffer from chronic hunger. 2 billion people do not have sufficient access to vitamins and minerals. 1.9 billion overeat and 600 million are obese. Moreover, both of these categories of people are more prone to Type 2 diabetes. So, does this not reflect the inequality in our food system ? 

Our food is too rich in fat, sugar, salt, and meat. This increases our risk of lifestyle diseases related to the heart in addition to hiking the emission of greenhouse gases into the environment. Our food is, thus, less diverse but more risk prone. 75% of our plate is made up of only 12 plant types like rice and corn, only 5 types of animal products. 

At a time when our natural resources are under pressure, ⅓ of our food is wasted. This is not even consumed but just thrown away. 33% of our soil is degraded. 

So, is it not high time that our food system be transformed ?

Production, processing, distribution, and consumption - all of these should and must be transformed. We must increase variety in our plates, switch to healthier food which will in turn reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. We must, therefore, produce differently and eat differently. We must avoid overconsumption and wastage. 

I personally adopted a vegetarian diet on my birthday last year to sensitize people about the importance of healthy food in sustaining our environment.

I hope you all will watch and share the video, and take action to recharge our food habits, systems, and practices.