03-29-2007, 04:56 AM
[CENTER]Don’t waste food, please[/CENTER]
By Muhammad Rizwan
According to Indian philosophy, “food is equal to God.” It is also one of the forms of Rizq in Islam. But we give the same amount of respect to food (Rizq) as we give respect to the old people in our home. The result: millions of our fellow beings die malnourished while tons of food is thrown away or get wasted for no good reason.
Wasting food is not good for anyone. So if things are going wrong, we have to put them on the right track. First we have to do fault-finding. Here we go. The basic reason for this is degradation of ethics in human beings irrespective of caste, colour, creed, race, region and religion. Scientific inventions are creating things aplenty, but commercial conventions are creating scarcity. Production units have partly become destruction units.
Let us examine this problem from a layman's point of view. Food was considered sacred by our ancestors and it used to be given to others. But now because of the plenty we have, thanks to our industrial civilisation, food is being floundered as a sign of wealth, never mind if it’s being wasted in a frenzied display of prosperity.
Whenever you arrange any get-together or function, just give a call to any charitable organisation and make arrangements to donate surplus food maintaining the utmost level of decency, or depute someone to donate food to the beggars waiting outside your premises. Start such a thing and it will soon catch up. I know, some people already do it. Needless to say, every time we eat, whether it is at home or at a function, we should only help ourselves only to our stomach's fill. Nothing less, nothing more. Don't allow the other person to serve or force you eat against your will and it is your job to do so. If you try or are able to convince the other person successfully, then you are a member of the unorganised movement against wastage of food just like me. Just estimate how much of productivity is lost forever when most of us discard food on our plates and imagine all the time, energy and money put on that right from the farm place by the farmer, worker in a mill, godown and then carried on by a driver to the commercial outlets, sold by the seth and to the kitchen where the chef prepares and finally puts onto your platter. It is no simple issue that such a big process comes to an end before you and you thwart it just in a second unmindful of all the countable, uncountable factors and transactions behind the food in front of your plate. The root cause of this is the lack of clarity of purpose in life and degradation of moral values.
It is anybody's guess that there are solutions to this issue, but we only lack the zeal, the motive to solve the problem. Now, who will bell the cat? It’s us! Anybody who reads this article or anybody who eats food and knows that there are people starving right outside his or her house. If you see someone wasting food tell them not do so. Tell them countless times, at least that thought will get rooted into his or her mind and will work at some point. It is only half of our mission. The other half, "give it to others" is up to them. If everyone starts doing this, this will become a national, and consequently an international issue.
This concept of food should first be included in textbooks for small children. This is where the strongest foundation should be laid. They can work wonders and teach everyone most effectively than any management heads or spiritual messiahs. Even I got inspired by the lesson taught by my teacher in my early childhood. Next, ladies should be in focus of the voluntary organisations because they are the home-makers.
Men must be convinced by women and children and the media. Newspapers, magazines, television channels and the Internet should take the responsibility to move towards a socially aware society. The media has the great responsibility in this regard. It can make or break things. It can convince commercial organisations and the government about the issue.
Courtesy: DAWN newspaper.
By Muhammad Rizwan
According to Indian philosophy, “food is equal to God.” It is also one of the forms of Rizq in Islam. But we give the same amount of respect to food (Rizq) as we give respect to the old people in our home. The result: millions of our fellow beings die malnourished while tons of food is thrown away or get wasted for no good reason.
Wasting food is not good for anyone. So if things are going wrong, we have to put them on the right track. First we have to do fault-finding. Here we go. The basic reason for this is degradation of ethics in human beings irrespective of caste, colour, creed, race, region and religion. Scientific inventions are creating things aplenty, but commercial conventions are creating scarcity. Production units have partly become destruction units.
Let us examine this problem from a layman's point of view. Food was considered sacred by our ancestors and it used to be given to others. But now because of the plenty we have, thanks to our industrial civilisation, food is being floundered as a sign of wealth, never mind if it’s being wasted in a frenzied display of prosperity.
Whenever you arrange any get-together or function, just give a call to any charitable organisation and make arrangements to donate surplus food maintaining the utmost level of decency, or depute someone to donate food to the beggars waiting outside your premises. Start such a thing and it will soon catch up. I know, some people already do it. Needless to say, every time we eat, whether it is at home or at a function, we should only help ourselves only to our stomach's fill. Nothing less, nothing more. Don't allow the other person to serve or force you eat against your will and it is your job to do so. If you try or are able to convince the other person successfully, then you are a member of the unorganised movement against wastage of food just like me. Just estimate how much of productivity is lost forever when most of us discard food on our plates and imagine all the time, energy and money put on that right from the farm place by the farmer, worker in a mill, godown and then carried on by a driver to the commercial outlets, sold by the seth and to the kitchen where the chef prepares and finally puts onto your platter. It is no simple issue that such a big process comes to an end before you and you thwart it just in a second unmindful of all the countable, uncountable factors and transactions behind the food in front of your plate. The root cause of this is the lack of clarity of purpose in life and degradation of moral values.
It is anybody's guess that there are solutions to this issue, but we only lack the zeal, the motive to solve the problem. Now, who will bell the cat? It’s us! Anybody who reads this article or anybody who eats food and knows that there are people starving right outside his or her house. If you see someone wasting food tell them not do so. Tell them countless times, at least that thought will get rooted into his or her mind and will work at some point. It is only half of our mission. The other half, "give it to others" is up to them. If everyone starts doing this, this will become a national, and consequently an international issue.
This concept of food should first be included in textbooks for small children. This is where the strongest foundation should be laid. They can work wonders and teach everyone most effectively than any management heads or spiritual messiahs. Even I got inspired by the lesson taught by my teacher in my early childhood. Next, ladies should be in focus of the voluntary organisations because they are the home-makers.
Men must be convinced by women and children and the media. Newspapers, magazines, television channels and the Internet should take the responsibility to move towards a socially aware society. The media has the great responsibility in this regard. It can make or break things. It can convince commercial organisations and the government about the issue.
Courtesy: DAWN newspaper.