“Food is a right; good food is a privilege; safe food is a responsibility”. This needs to be the dictum that dictates our food habits and nothing else.
Man, for survival, requires adequate food to satisfy his hunger. Nations that leave, knowingly or unknowingly, even one of its citizens hungry, does not meet primary standards of governance. Access to food is the primary right of citizens it shall be ensured with access to at least two square meals a day.
The staple food of the world is either rice or wheat. When harvest fails this affects the food supply availability and ends in famine. Bad policies of the government with lackadaisical attitude ignorance of the supply process, despite food stocks, also results in famine. The great Bengal famine of 1943 was due to the latter, on the part of the British Raj, resulting in the death of millions of Indians. The impact of the shortage of food affects health too. It should be ensured that one has access to food every day. This could be added by the ruler being callous to citizen food requirement evidenced by remarks of the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. “I hate Indians; they are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine is their fault for breeding like rabbits”. Arrogance, ignorance and superiority complex rings the death knell of the ruler. What followed in 1947 is history; it rang the death knell of the British Raj.
Good food can be food that satisfies hunger and all nutritional requirement of the human body which also means the availability of food as and when required.
There are two classes of people the world over, with varying culinary habits– the vegetarians and the non-vegetarian. These two types of food though sourced from two different domains of the living world- the plant and animal kingdoms, provide all nourishment needed by the human body. Interestingly these two domains are interdependent on their existence and hence make life possible on earth including that of the human race that sources its food from both of them. Wild eating and farmed eating habits are the two known sources of the human diet. Wild eating makes available food while farmed eating provides for determining good food.
Food, to remain safe, shall not cause harm to humans or farmed animals from the presence of; detrimental physical bodies, ingress (accidentally, carelessly or purposefully) of harmful chemicals and detrimental antigens developed through microbial proliferation.
These factors were identified as early as the nineteenth century, culminating in the early nineteen sixties by identifying a food production process, by the food major Pillsbury, to ensure safe food for Astronauts with no food options other than that they carry. The resulting scientific process has come to be known as “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point” where every step in the processes of farming, harvesting, storage, transport, processing, packaging and storage, serving and consuming, are identified and the potential for hazard ingress are acted upon scientifically.
Food habits across the world are varied. What to eat is a personal choice dictated by availability, culture, buying power, and in some cases religion. No man or community is empowered, by nature, to determine the food culture or food habits of others. We are our masters here.
A choice combination of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food (or animal-sourced) would be ideal for healthy living. We need to choose intelligently, eat hot food hot and cold food cold, to ensure that the body is not deprived of required nourishment to stay healthy. We may eat any food, eat good food, but most of all, be wise and responsible to ensure the safety of the food we eat or serve to remain healthy.
your insights are like a lantern in the dark, illuminating the path to a healthier and brighter life. Truly guiding light.