Food for thought

A couple of weekends spent on just one primordial pursuit: FOOD.

Lately, some events in my life have been centered around "food for the hungry". Trying to get a bigger picture of what this really means, I spent most of this evening reading about food, malnutrition and its effects on child survival, development and the impact on future generations.

Researching and reading well into the night, I found this video. A "TED talks"  presentation which sums up in a simple way, the concise picture of the hunger crises and what can be done about it. I was challenged by it, and I hope you will too!

"Despite India’s remarkable economic growth over the last decade, many children still struggle to meet their most basic needs, including access to sufficient f ood and h ealth c are. According to the 2 005-06 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), 20 per cent of Indian children under five years old were wasted (acutely malnourished) and 48 percent w ere stunted (chronically malnourished). Importantly, with 43 per cent of children underweight ( with a weight deficit for their age) rates of child underweight in India are twice higher than the average figure in sub-Saharan Africa (22 per cent). The consequences of this nutrition crisis are enormous; in addition to being the attributable cause of one third to one half of child deaths, malnutrition causes stunted physical growth and cognitive development t hat last a lifetime; the economic losses associated with malnutrition are estimated at 3 per cent of India’s GDP annually". Excerpt from India's Hungama survey report 2011