Another UN Conference-Will any thing substantial come out it?

It is an irrefutable fact that we have side by side hunger as well as obesity, co-existing, with each passing day the latter cases growing at an alarming rate. This is attributed to inequitable distribution of wealth which is mostly concentrated in rich industrialized countries like the US, Europe, japan and a few others. While ways and means to tackle poverty and hunger are routinely discussed the progress towards a world free of people with starvation and near starvation is still a mirage. Global aid to ameliorate this ugly situation does bring down hunger significantly and food aid can never be the answer to banish the scourge of hunger on a permanent footing. The key to overcome this curse is enabling people in affected countries to earn more through economic development so that they can access to the food with ease. Agricultural productivity to day is more or less satisfactory growing sufficient food to meet the needs of the entire planet and new technologies are continuously emerging to help the farmers to attain higher and higher land productivity. If it is a question of generating income among not well to do population what a UN conference can achieve through a conference is a debatable point. Nonetheless if the forthcoming UN conference in Rome can continue to sensitize the governments in various countries regarding the food problem and health issues arising out of food it can keep them in focus, lest they are forgotten. Here is a take on this development which is billed as path breaking for the future of this plant  .

"An upcoming international conference on nutrition will focus on the twin evils of malnutrition and obesity.  Representatives from at least 140 governments, including 90 ministers and members of private institutions and civil societies, will gather in Rome next week to devise strategies for improving the nutritional status of hundreds of millions of people around the world. The conference, which is jointly organized by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization will address multiple issues related to nutrition.  These include the problems of under-nutrition, obesity, and chronic diseases related to poor diet. Global statistics are not encouraging.  WHO reports more than 800 million people suffer from chronic hunger.  More than 160 million children are affected by chronic malnutrition or stunting.  At the same time, it says 42 million children under age five are overweight.  These figures tell an even more dramatic story when statistics on adult under and over-nutrition are factored in. FAO and WHO agree the global food system is broken and must be fixed to provide healthy nutritional diets for those who are deprived.  They say it is possible to enact policies that can improve the quality of the food supply, provide healthy foods and intervene directly in life-saving therapy when needed. Xiangjun Yao, the director of the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva, says good nutrition is composed of many strands.  Therefore, she says there must be a holistic approach to cover the whole food chain. "To us, the food system, it should be something from the farm to the table, from what we call farm to fork and, that covers production, processing, storage, distribution, preparation and also consumption,"  Yao said. The U.N. agencies will be proposing a large, comprehensive list of strategies to the conference for approval.  The plan of action will call for greater focus on the nutrition of children from birth to age two to avoid malnutrition and stunting.  It also calls for greater attention to the needs of pregnant and lactating women as well as to the most neglected and socially marginalized groups in society. The centerpiece of the conference, which will run from November 19 to 21, will be a political declaration asking governments to commit themselves to eradicate hunger and prevent all forms of malnutrition worldwide by 2025.  Director of the WHO's Department of Nutrition, Franceso Branca, tells VOA that the so-called SDG II or Sustainable Development Goal will go beyond the Millennium Development Goals, which have succeeded in halving hunger in at least 63 countries by 2015". 

While number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition is coming down as per the statistics provided by FAO, it is the obesity problem that haunts many developed and developing countries which does not show any abatement in spite of a slew of measures to arrest its growth and reduce such population significantly. Though over eating is more like a disease which may need a medical approach, what is intriguing is why people indulge in gluttony knowing pretty well that it is dangerous to their health. Modern food industry is often blamed for tempting people with highly palatable but nutritionally deficient food products in most convenient formats.but personal choices are important and younger generation needs to be "intensely" educated to shun high calorie, high fat, high salt foods illustrating the dangerous consequences of opting for such foods. Industry cannot be expected to do much as it is a profit center constantly trying to ensure adequate returns to its investments and the industry will always cater to the demand from the market regarding what foods consumers want. The forthcoming conference must focus on an international commitment to upgrade the curriculum and educational practices to obviate the situation. Along with policy supports which can subtly change the product mix coming out of the industry, a new era must emerge where "conscious" eating may become a norm.      

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE KILLING SCHOOLS OF INDIA-MIDDAY MEAL TRAGEDY IN BIHAR

Can the ruthless politicians and arrogant bureaucrats hear the wailing of parents in Chhapra, Bihar after the latter lost their most precious possessions-their tender children? In stead of apologizing for their callousness and unconscionable guilt for not preventing an avoidable tragedy, they are bickering among themselves regarding the culprits for this ghastly man created tragedy and it is a shame on the education minister in that state to imply openly that these children were deliberately poisoned by his opponents! Where is the moral high grounds usually taken by honest administrators when inefficiency and neglect on their part cause such fatal episodes under their care?  This Blogger recently raised the most crucial question in one of his Blogs regarding the suitability of schools to cook safe and nutritious foods and highlighted the dangers posed by ill-equipped teaching shops in undertaking food cooking. (Please refer to http://vhpotty.blogspot.in/2013/06/schools-in-india-are-they-meant-for.html). To receive such a news within a matter of few days of publishing the above piece is shocking indeed! If the recent public debate on this issue in one of the English Channels is closely followed one can realize that such episodes occur fairly frequently with the governments least concerned about its impact on innocent children of this country being subjected to such grave risks by sending to killer schools like the one in Chhapra. Here is a take on the Chhapra episode.  

"21 children have died as a result of the free lunch they were served in that school yesterday.  Officials say it appears that the meal of lentils, vegetables and rice was contaminated with insecticides; a forensic report is due later this evening. Another 30 children remain ill in hospital in Chhapra, some of them lying listless on stretchers, intravenous drips attached to their tiny arms. "My children had gone to school to study. They came back home crying, and said it hurts," one distraught father told NDTV.  "I took them into my arms, but they kept crying, saying their stomach hurt very badly." As weeping parents mourned, political parties delivered stunning responses.The ruling Janata Dal United said it is being targeted  by "a deep-rooted conspiracy." Spokesperson KC Tyagi said, " The way the opposition of Bihar is responding, I feel that it is a big conspiracy. They want to destabilise the Bihar Government."  he BJP, which was booted out last month from a 17-year partnership with the Janata Dal United, backed some locals who said that  officials took too long to organise ambulances for children after they fell violently ill at school. It took 15 hours to evacuate the children. This is criminal negligence and the state government is responsible for this," said Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP".

The sum and substance of the stand taken by this Blogger was that most schools are ill-equipped in terms of facilities, spare time and skilled personnel required to cook decent foods and therefore there must be a rethinking on the present policy of the government to serve "hot foods" which carries with it grave risks to the lives of tender children being sent by their parents to receive basic education. Packed foods manufactured by established food processing industrial units, standardized to contain the optimum levels of essential nutrients, are far more preferable though there could be an element of monotony in terms of taste factors. But this is not a problem which cannot be solved provided reputed food research agencies and nutrition experts join hands to evolve a basket of products with impeccable credentials which can be prepared in the schools with minimum risks before feeding the children. One of the Parliamentary Committees  of the very same government recommended packed foods three months ago which was irresponsibly ignored! Is there some substance in the argument that politicians of all hues and colors are least interested in the well being of children going to government schools because their own children go to fancy schools paying enormous fees for their education? It is for people to brood over such an allegation and act appropriately during the election time!    

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

  

DAMNING THE PICKLE!-INDIA'S HYPERTENSION PROBLEM

Pickles and chutneys are part and parcel of Indian diets from time immemorial wile papad is a totally an Indian creation. What is common for these products is the high salt content and since the close linkage between salt and hypertension came to surface these high salt products are receiving close scrutiny from health and nutritionists. During the last few years there have been questions regarding the future of the industry which churn out these products and even this blogger had published a piece on the future of pickle industry in India. While these developments are being driven by the scientific finding that salt intake has to be drastically reduced to prevent the hypertension and cardiac epidemic sweeping through many countries with high salt consumption spreading further taking a heavy toll of human lives. So far no standards are presently available in India with regard to optimum level of salt that can be consumed by Indians under the Indian conditions. But a recent expose on the subject which is referred to below, calls for reducing the salt intake from the reported level of 6-8 gms by 15-20% that can prevent thousands of death due to disorders like hypertension, CVD and Kidney ailments. Here is a take on this issue.     

Experts say that Indians consume up to 6 to 8 grams of salt daily, while the Indian health ministry hypertension guidelines say that only 2.4 grams is recommended. It isn't excess salt intake alone that heightens an Indian's chances of getting hypertension, it's also the Indian build. "Indians have thinner blood vessels than Caucasians, leading to different salt sensitivity among the two groups. Hence, the Indian blood vessel's ability to handle salt is lower than others," said Joshi, who practises at Lilavati Hospital in Bandra. A study done in Chennai in 2007 found that an increased intake of 1.5 to 2 grams of salt was associated with an increase in high and low blood-pressure by approximately 1mm Hg (the unit to measure blood pressure). "The risk of cardiovascular disease rises with blood pressure throughout the normotensive (normal) blood-pressure range and almost 60% of coronary heart disease events and 45 to 50% of strokes occur in those with high normal blood-pressure," said the study conducted by Dr V Mohan of Chennai.Any reduction in salt intake brings about a healthy change as far as hypertension is concerned. The Chennai study, which was published in JAPI (Journal of Association of Physicians of India), found that a reduction in intake of sodium by 1.2 grams daily would lead to a 50% reduction in the number of people requiring anti-hypertensive therapy. The lower intake could also mean a 22% reduction in the number of deaths due to stroke and a 16% reduction in the number of deaths due to coronary artery disease. Incidentally, if one sticks to the traditional Indian diet, hypertension wouldn't be such a problem. Dr Jagmeet Madan, principal of the SNDT College for Nutrition, Juhu, said, "If you stick to the traditional Indian diet, you will never go higher on salt." The problem creeps in when additions creep in to the Indian thali. "Adding chutneys, pickles and papads sends the salt balance haywire," she said. So, processed foods should be kept as "sometime foods" instead of everyday foods.

In India every data has to be viewed with suspicion for its veracity and same is true with regard to salt consumption also. Earlier there were reports that Indians consume on an average 12 gms of salt every day though this information also must be the guess work of some statistcians without doing any representative field survey. In developed countries where commercially processed foods constitute almost 80% of daily diet salt consumption is sought to be controlled through regulating salt in such foods either voluntarily or through mandatory rules. There are campaigns in some countries to sensitize citizens regarding the dangers of high salt consumption and consciously reduce daily intake gradually to levels considered safe. One often wonders whether salt is really as dangerous as being made out currently because for centuries pickles, chutneys and papads were being consumed regularly with no significant health hazards. How this situation has changed now? Is it because of ignoring the traditional foods Indians have been consuming for long and switching over to more and more factory processed foods with high salt content? Food industry world over are known to use the trioka of salt, sugar and fat to make consumers food addicts leading to many of the modern day life style disorders like obesity and others. Now that civilization has come so far depending heavily on processed convenient foods with doubtful health credentials, it is better to be more cautious in consuming food ingredients like salt and follow the guidelines for keeping one self healthy!   

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

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TAXING THE FOOD-IS IT ETHICALLY AND MORALLY JUSTIFIED?

Taxation and other financial impositions by governments all over the world are borne by the citizens believing that the money so collected goes for developmental activities beneficial to the citizen. But this does not happen, especially in an over democratic country like India where silent tax players never ask the government about lack of development in spite of paying taxes at rates unbearable to many. On top of it natural resources like spectrum, coal etc are distributed at throw away prices creating huge financial scams, depriving the government the much needed financial inputs for various developmental activities. Added to this a small percentage of citizens, that too mostly from the salaried class who pay income tax while a bevy of taxes are "innovated", like sales tax, value added tax, excise duty, import duty, service tax, wealth tax, road tax, property registration fees etc to fleece the citizens. While all these are understandable, what is reprehensible is the tax levied on food and drugs by state governments making them more expensive. How can any one justify taxing a basic food like food grain which is the essential for any human being to lead a normal life. Here is a critique on this subject.

'High taxes, levied by major food grain growing states of Punjab and Haryana, have made the Centre's task of selling wheat at low rates in the open market difficult. The taxes, ranging from 4.7 per cent in Madhya Pradesh to 11.5 per cent in Haryana and still higher at almost 14.5 per cent in Punjab, are incurred by the Centre while procuring grains from farmers every year at a fixed minimum support price (MSP). It is difficult for the Centre not to pass on these taxes to consumers at the time of selling grains in the open market as then its food subsidy burden will further inflate. According to some estimates, around 10 per cent or Rs 7,000 crore of the total food subsidy in 2011-12 was due to state taxes and levies, which the Food Corporation of India (FCI) paid by way of levies and taxes to different states".

Government of India generates inflation index periodically and one is not sure how reliable these figures are. Still a major contributor to inflation is the taxes levied on every conceivable consumer material the government can set its yes on! How can the private vendors and shops can be faulted if they also indulge in raising the prices on their own. Look at the hotel sector which has seen price hikes to the extent of 100% during the last two years as they are not covered by the rule of compulsory MRP declaration. Even those covered under MRP regulations consumers have learned long ago that the MRP declaration does not serve much of a purpose because, till recently, consumer products industry has been practicing fraudulent means in keeping the price line steady but progressively reducing the quantity within a pack! A honest government if it has any consideration for the sufferings of its people must exempt all foods, especially the basic ones, from the purview of punitive taxation!  The excuse that federal government in India cannot prevent the states from imposing tax on foods is just an excuse which the citizens cannot accept.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

   

GOVERNMENTS ARE ABOVE LAW?-OF COURSE ONLY IN INDIA!

In general the food quality and safety surveillance system in India is considered weak with hardly any convictions taking place against food adulterators while the country is flooded with spurious, sub-standard and unsafe foods of local make as well as imported. Even the small number of culprits caught and punished are private traders and some small industry players while government connected agencies dealing with food are never checked. A number of cooperative dairies peddling milk and milk products are known to violate government standards but it is rare that their samples are picked up for testing by the food authorities. A dichotomy that deserves condemnation because adverse effect on consumer due to unsafe foods whether from the private source or government source, will be same. Here is a case of food grains of questionable standard being channeled through the PDS system with no one too much concerned about it.

"The report of the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of India has revealed that no tests are being carried out to determine the quality of foodgrains to be distributed under public distribution system (PDS). Food grain is received from the food corporation of India (FCI) by the state government. The report states that to ensure the prescribed quality of food grains, the PDS (Control) Order, 2001stipulates that before making payment to the FCI, state government representatives or nominees and the FCI should conduct a joint inspection of the stocks of foodgrains intended for issue. The order also states that the FCI should issue stack-wise sealed samples of the stock of foodgrains supplied to the state government for distribution. "It was observed in audit that such joint inspections to ensure the quality of foodgrains as per the PDS (Control) Order, 2001 were not conducted by the department during the period spanning 2005-10. The department also did not obtain sealed samples of the stock of food grains supplied by FCI during the period 2005-10", the report stated".

Whether there are explicit instructions from the state governments which control the public health department dealing with food safety and quality, not to take any samples from the organizations like dairies is not known. Another probable reason could be that government agencies do not pay the bribe to inspectors which is a "disincentive" against proceeding against them. GOI may be too concerned that if real quality checks are done a substantial portion of the food grains would be found unfit for human consumption, causing disruption to PDS! Unfortunately the poor "Aam Admi" is the silent sufferer because of this dichotomy on the part of the government.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

KERALA AND VENEZUELA-WHAT IS COMMON?

The shooing out of PepsiCo from Kerala in 2002 is still fresh in the memory of many people who value the sanctity of agreements and commitments in establishing working relations between the state and the industry. Though the bottling giant, invited to establish its bottling plant in an investment starved state like Kerala which "enjoys" the unenviable reputation as an industry unfriendly state in the country, significant incentives and assurance of labor peace persuaded the MNC to enter the state. The political twist in the state forced the plant to be shuttered soon on some pretext and history is being repeated now with the state going after another MNC, Coca Cola which has its bottling plant not far way from the Pepsi plant that was closed for ever. Recent pronouncements by Venezuela on the working of MNCs working there to review their functioning is a pointer to the eventual forceful closure of these companies.

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez singled out Coca-Cola and Pepsi among transnational companies that would have their water use reviewed by the government as part of a widening state control on the economy. Chavez accused transnational companies of privatizing water, in the latest swipe at businesses that use large quantities of water in their production processes. Last year he penalized many Venezuelan companies that he said were wasting water. Chavez said all water belonged to the people, calling it a "social property."

No doubt water is a precious natural resource which needs to be protected from wastage and over exploitation for which each nation should have a route map for conservation. If there are inequities in utilization of water same should be addressed with serious efforts to find a lasting solution. If all manufacturing facilities which require certain minimum amounts of water for efficient functioning are to be closed down what will happen to their investments and what will be the fate of thousands of employees earning a livelihood by working in these facilities? The political class which seeks to promote their ideologies should not lose track of the national interest and stymie the industrial development under any pretext is a short sighted and reprehensible.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com