Regarding food waste, let’s take a simple example. The average household in Ireland wastes about €700-worth of food each year. €700! Personally, that fact makes my blood boil. Things like fruit, vegetables and bread that spoil quickly are the biggest sources of waste. Think of how often we find food gone off in our fridges, rotting in the vegetable drawer, past the ‘use by’ date. If we only bought what we needed, it would reduce demand and probably prices, making some food products more affordable for people on low incomes. Maybe that money saved on food could go towards a charity that helps farmers in the underdeveloped world produce food more efficiently.
Regarding war, this ongoing outrage is a real and terrible reality for too many people. Wars are horrendously destructive for many reasons, one of which is that they make the normal production and distribution of food very difficult. As I write, there
are around 2 million children under the age of five in Yemen on the verge of starvation as a result of the ongoing civil war. Lots of foreign aid has been sent from countries like the US to help with the problem. What is infuriating is that many of the weapons being used in the war are also produced and sold by the US. War and profit are more important than people’s lives. It is hypocritical that countries like the US supply food aid and relief on the one hand, and weapons of war on the other. If they stopped supplying weapons, maybe the ability to carry out acts of war and terror would be reduced, saving millions of lives.
Many people will read my blog and say that my wishes are simplistic. However, it seems we have plenty of money and are plenty smart enough to sort this crisis out. What is clearly lacking is the will to do so. Sometimes you have to be simplistic for people to see the madness.
