History of Food Security in India

History of Food Security in India (902)

" Food insecurity exists when all people, at all times, do not have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."

Food and Agricultural Organization (1996)

In nearly 20 years, India's rapid economic growth has improved their people's standard of living. The Indians have more abundant food choices than before. However, approximately 10.3 million people die in a year in India. Nearly 780,000 of these deaths are associated with the condition of the water; over 400,000 people died from diarrhea. This reflects the huge food security problem in this developing country. In reality, the deaths caused by food and food poisoning can be prevented. This requires that the whole food supply system to be taken seriously without corruption.

             Why is the food safety situation in India so terrible? The main reason is that it lacks a standard of food security. The joint committee on India's parliament reports that current laws and regulations involving food safety standard are not unified; the ministry of health, agriculture and the other eight departments have different food safety standards, they lack coordination. People are confused what to do to make food security system management better. It also lets consumers suffer. One of the most famous examples of an Indian food security problem occurred more than a year ago. In India, Coke, Pepsi and some domestic brands of soft drinks unexpectedly contained between 10-70 times of higher a concentration of pesticide residue than Europe standards allow. In fact, daily food in general in India such as vegetables and fruits, contain excessive amounts of the pesticides as well. According to media reports, in New Delhi, some children have diarrhea and vomiting after eating grapes. The reason is that the grapes have remainders of pesticides which have not been washed off. Three months earlier, according to a survey generated from the Indian Council of Medicine, 51% of food pollution was produced by pesticides. A year ago, the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi tested food intake of a few adult and 1-3 years old children in big cities. The result was that the pesticide level were higher than that of the prescribed standards.

A main cause of these food safety issues is that people do not enforce the laws and regulations seriously. In 1955, India formulated the "prevention of food adulteration act". This is a major law to protect consumers in the fields of food process, preservation, pesticide residues and packing. However, because the living standard and science technology have been improved day by day, the law was created half a century ago which means it has been out of date. In 1955, India's food processing industry was not very powerful; therefore, the food processing industry was not involved in the “prevention of food adulteration act”. Nowadays, with an increasing number of processed foods, semi-finished products and canned food, the government has not make a specific food processing security law. India has 14 issues involving food safety laws and regulations, such as "milk and dairy products management regulations", "meat safety rules" and so on, but most of the rules are mandatory. An India Bureau reported that they are responsible for drafting all kinds of food safety regulations, these rules do not have legal effect; most of them are too difficult to implement. For example, despite the government's strict rule that does not allow mixing pigment in processed foods, a group of red pepper exported to Europe last year was found containing carcinogenic pigment, causing huge losses.

            Also, India's public food security consciousness is generally weak. Phenomenons such as drinking tap water, using hands to eat and using a newspaper to wrap food can be seen everywhere. Simple food around the streets causes the spread of disease. Because many people do not have the habit of drinking boiled water, they directly drinking tap water or well water, leading to diarrhea, enteritis, and hepatitis. These become common and frequently occurring diseases. It is reported that there are more diseases in India than any other country in the world. Indian industry published a "current health status evaluation report" in at the end of a confederation. In recent years, some diseases once thought to have wiped out have appeared in India. In the meantime, the newly discovered infectious diseases are threatening national health. Communicable diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and pneumonia in India have an obvious trend if growth.

             Overall, food security in India can be achieved by paying higher attention to issues such as water management, making a standard of food security, enforcing the law and regulations seriously and aware about health in general. Although the new food bill is beneficial thanks to its basic food supplies for poor people, due to the facts that many people died and have food borne illness from poisoning food, here is a strong need to reduce the negative effects on food security in India. The government should find a solution to make the food quality better.

Work Cited

P.S., Brahmanand. "Challenges to food security in India." . N.p.. Web. 30 Sep 2013. <http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/104/07/0841.pdf

Sujoy, Chakravarty. "Food Security in India: Causes and Dimensions." . N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sep 2013. <http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/publications/data/2005-04-01sujoy.pdf>.

Henk-Jan, Brinkman. "Food Insecurity and violent conflict." . N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sep 2013. <http://ucanr.edu/blogs/food2025/blogfiles/14415.pdf>.