Concept

Food is one of the basic needs of human beings. Growing, harvesting, preparing food and the age-old traditions of coming together to eat has been the focus of family and community life from time immemorial. It has been the social adhesive that has sustained communities. The gradual shift to new trends in eating, especially the rapid and pervading growth of fast food, is destroying this vital food culture. What we eat has changed more on last forty years than in the previous forty thousand years of human history. Health is that which is created our of the food that we eat. The question is are we eating the food that make us healthy or are we eating “something” which is killing us slowly…… unknowingly.

The paradox of our times is that the modern food habits are affecting the health of the populace as well as the health of our planet. Food production should have as little negative impact as possible on both the environment and the people involved in producing the food. As a generation which has had access to less polluted food and water we have a legitimate duty to the next generation. We are at debt to them and we need to ensure a healthy life for them. In fact our day to day life, if it does not contribute to ensure this, we are failing in our duty to protect our future generation and abetting one of the worst health disasters that waiting in the wings to happen.
Our global food supply now is gradually becoming centralized and relies on diminishing variety of crops that again are grown in huge monoculture making it more vulnerable to pest outbreaks and diseases. At the turn of the century there were thirty thousand varieties of rice in India, but now there is not even half of that. Diminishing variety of food crops due to large scale monoculture, increasing pesticide use, exploitation and cruel treatment of millions of animals and ethical issues around food acquisition, production and retailing are factors that implies huge costs to our environment and our quality of life.

Growing, harvesting, preparing food and the ritual of coming together to eat has been the focus of family and community life for millennium. It has been the social adhesive that has sustained communities. The gradual shift to new trends in eating is destroying even the vital and vibrant food culture that existed for ages.
There is an urgent for a food revolution to replace the industrialized factory model highly processed food with a sustainable system of safe and nutritious food that is ethically produced, fuels our health and is culturally acceptable.
We have to recognize that food is not a commodity. It's the very basis of life. Secondly, food production is not industrial activity. It is a means of nurturing the land. It is conserving resources. It is giving livelihoods. It is shaping a culture. And it is much more than bringing wheat, rice and vegetables and fruits to the marketplace.
We need to discuss on solutions. There is a health crisis and food crisis looming.

• We need nutritionally rich food.
• We need to sustain our communities by keeping producers in business.
• We need to reduce our exposure to toxic pesticide in our immediate environment.
• We need to keep our food supply in our hands ensuring food safety and food sovereignty.
• We need to reduce diet related diseases.
• We need to ensure a future generation that is healthy and vibrant.

That is the most valuable gift we can give our children. There is an alternative and we need to act upon it with urgency lest we lose the chance to make the Earth a better place to live in. What is at Stake is the evolution of nature and survival of people, our food sovereignty and food freedom – for the sake of the earth, for all species and for ourselves and for generations to come. A growing number of people believe that sustainable community food system (where food is grown, processed and distributed locally with strong emphasis on environmental and social values) provide a viable economic alternative to the industrial food system.