Food for thought

Miguel Braganza

Our food should be our medicine but, instead, medicines have increasingly become our food. The shift from natural to industrial farming, and the rampant use of war chemicals, cleverly disguised by manufacturers as agro-chemicals and used by gullible farmers convinced by the brainwashed ‘extension’ officers, has led us to this state. The use of the mortuary chemical formalin for the preservation of fish has shaken some of us out of our complacency at a time when some of our elected representatives are in hospitals. Food is not just another four-letter word. We need food every single day.

The World Food Day (WFD) is celebrated on 16 October every year to mark the foundation day of the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Since 1981, WFD has adopted a different theme each year in order to highlight areas needed for action and provide a common focus. World Food Day 2018 will mark the 73rd anniversary of FAO and events have been organised in over 150 countries across the world for increased action to achieve ‘zero hunger’ with the theme ‘Our Actions are our Future’.

The recently held second edition of the ‘Ramponnkaramchem Fest’ held at Arambol Beach focused our attention on what plastic waste is doing to the fish catch of the traditional fishermen. The poignant scenes enacted by Uzwaad, of the fishermen drawing nets filled with plastics instead of fish and the sadness writ on the faces of their womenfolk, were not lost on the participants. If proof was needed, there were plastic packets, mineral water bottles and other flotsam in the three ‘ramponn’(nets) cast and then pulled to the shore as a part of the fest on the last Sunday of September.

Young minds can be inspired to think and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 2030 of ‘zero hunger’ and show how everyone needs to come together and take action to reach this global goal. The good news is that many teacher-trainees in B Ed colleges in Goa are now getting involved in learning to grow plants and so are students in schools and colleges. Growing food is a natural succession when one feels the need for healthy, organically grown food. Yes, we are a species that can think if we want.