What societies eat reflects their position on the modernity trajectory. Poorer countries have health problems because of lack of food. Then as people get rich, they end up losing the health advantage of food availability. They eat processed food that is high in salt, sugar and fat, which make them obese and ill. It is only when societies get very rich that they rediscover the benefits of eating real food and value sustainability.
The tragic loss of 23 young lives because of contaminated food in a Bihar school is unacceptable. But it is also a fact that the Mid Day Meal Scheme, under which cooked food is compulsorily provided to children in government schools, is too important and critical to give up on. The only questions that matter are: why does the scheme not work as well as it should and what can be done to fix it?
Pollution in Sonbhadra area is not new and has been talked about for many years but no action has been taken to check the pollution. This has led to long term health impacts which have now started to show up in the population of the region. CSE took up a study to look at these health impacts and to investigate the possible causes.
Once again there is a food safety scare. A deadly strain of E coli bacterium has hit Germany, where it has taken the lives of 25 people and affected another 2,300 till date. German food inspectors on the trail of the source of contamination have as yet made two errors—blaming Spanish cucumbers and then organic bean sprouts—but no breakthrough.
There is never any end to learning. And so, surprises. We have learnt, over 20 years, that environmental governance in India is lackadaisical.
Ayurveda prescribes it for a range of ailments. People eat it for rejuvenation and boosting immunity. An Indian homemaker’s kitchen shelf is incomplete without a jar of this amber liquid.
Our control over our food and our health requires inventive institutional reordering and new ideas about the way food regulations work.
They say you are what you eat. But do we know what we are eating? Do we know who is cooking and serving us the food we take to our kitchens and then into our bodies?
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a non-governmental organization based inNew Delhi, has set up the Pollution Monitoring Laboratory (PML) to monitor environmental pollution.