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Tuesday, Jul 28, 2009
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Need for food security: Vandana Shiva

Staff Correspondent

MYSORE: Noted environment activist Vandana Shiva on Monday said India had beaten Africa in hunger as half of the country’s population was not having access to sufficient and nutritious food because of cut in food subsidy and the steep rise in food prices.

“In spite of food emergency, the issue of food security is not being addressed seriously,” she said.

Delivering a lecture on “Future of India’s food security,” on the occasion of the 93rd Foundation Day of the University of Mysore at Crawford Hall here, Ms. Shiva said more people in the country were starving at a time when its growth rate had touched nine per cent.

Describing the Food Security Act as “dangerous,” she advocated decentralisation of food production to boost food security. “The Centre should leave the subjects of food and agriculture to the discretion of the States. It should not interfere in those subjects as it may affect the federal structure. The food sovereignty of the people and the country should be respected,” Ms. Shiva contended.

Stressing the need for establishing community kitchen gardens in the country, the environment campaigner said such initiatives could successfully deal with hunger and malnutrition.

Noting that food security could be addressed through ecological security, right of farmers to produce food and right to eat, she cited the example of monsoon playing truant this year in some north Indian States, which are known as the country’s “food basket”, while highlighting the importance of ecological security for increasing food production. Fair market and scientific price for farmers’ produce was another key factor for food security as it built commitment on the right of food production, she opined, adding that the minimum support price to farmers’ produce needed to be considered on priority for the future of food security.

Natural right

“Right to eat is a natural right and people have right to adequate and nutritious food, but the government might have ignored this factor,” she noted.

Describing “ragi” as the potential food in the mission to achieve food security, Ms. Shiva lamented that “ragi” was treated an inferior grain and usually undermined though it had 40 per cent calcium and huge amounts of iron.

“Though ragi is the ‘food of the future,’ it is not considered superior due to racism in food,” she explained.

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