When one thinks of the environment, the cost of generating food and wastage is hardly ever considered. That is why the theme for this year’s World Environment Day is Think. Eat. Save. Reduce our Foodprint, which is especially pertinent for India where 40 per cent of food is wasted every year and millions go hungry.
Lise Grande, UN Resident Coordinator & UNDP Resident Representative, India, said that it is ironic that the highest wastage of food takes place in the developed countries. “Tragedy is that when so many people go hungry, so much food is wasted,” she said, adding that globally one-third of all the food produced in the world is not even eaten.
She said that the environmental cost of this wastage is phenomenal, given all the resources, such as power, water, fertilisers and others, used to produce them. Besides the environmental damage due to decomposition of the same.
Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister of Environment and Forests, emphasised the need to stop pitting environment and development against one another because there can be no development without environment.
The Environment Ministry has been criticised for holding up development due to slow clearances for projects, such as mines and roads.
She added that India’s development has to be sustainable and environment concerns span across the boundaries of ministries and departments.