Today is World Environment Day. 5th June was declared as the “World Environment Day” on the recommendations made by UN Conference on Human Environment in 1972. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through the celebration of World Environment Day spreads awareness and gets citizens’ support for environment protection across the globe.
The theme for this year’s World Environment Day (WED) is Think. Eat. Save- Reduce our Foodprint. The campaign calls for minimizing waste of food at all stages of the food chain, from farm to fork. This is to raise awareness about the environmental consequences of our food choices and find ways to reduce our environmental “foodprint”, as food production has profound impact on environmental resources. Agriculture is responsible for 70% of fresh water consumption, 80% of deforestation, and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is the cause of land-use change, biodiversity loss, and responsible for large-scale soil, water and air pollution. The campaign is also to remind each one of us that despite producing enough food for everyone, 90 crore people still go hungry world over. On this day we take a pledge to make a difference, individually as well as collectively, to reduce food loss or wastage and move towards a world where everyone has enough to eat and no one is malnourished or undernourished.
This mission cannot be achieved when we lose almost one-third (about 1.3 billion tonnes) of all the food produced globally. It is ironical that developed nations waste food more than the less developed countries. In India we lose approximately 40 per cent of perishable and non-perishable food at different stages from production, transportation, storage, retail to consumption. Millions of tonnes of food grain, in the absence of adequate storage infrastructure, rots every year. This is wastage of our dwindling natural resources and detrimental to the environment.
The WED is an opportunity to raise large-scale awareness among the producers, transporters, manufacturers & retailers, regulators, hospitality industry and affluent consumers on the negative aspects of wastage of food and how thoughtful actions can help minimize food loss.
Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister for Environment & Forests presided over the function to celebrate World Environment Day organized by the Ministry of Environment & Forests here today. While addressing the gathering, she said that there cannot be sustainable development without environment given due importance. Emphasizing the importance of sustainable development in everyday life, Smt. Natarajan said that natural resources cannot be replaced. She said that the debate of progress versus environment or development versus environment is completely irrelevant and unnecessary. Highlighting the importance of this year’s theme “Think. Eat. Save- Reduce our Foodprint” she said, that there is an urgent need to become more aware of environmental impact on the food choices we make. If food is wasted, it means all resources and inputs used in the production of all those foods are also lost, she added.
br> On the occasion, Dr. K. Kasturirangan,Member Planning Commission delivered the key note address on the theme. Dr. V. Rajagopalan, Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests and Ms. Lise Grande, UN Resident Co-ordinator and UNDP Resident Representative also addressed the function.
As the part of the celebrations, Five publications namely, Animal Discoveries- 2012, Plant Discoveries 2012, Coastal Zones of India, National Wetland Atlas: High Altitude Lakes of India and National Wetland Atlas : Wetlands of International Importance under Ramsar Convention were released by the dignitaries for spreading awareness and sensitizing the citizens.
On the occasion, Smt. Natarajan, presented this year’s “Young Environmentalist of the Year Award - 2013”to Ms. Arundhati Srivastava, from New Delhi . She has been selected for this year award by conducting a National Level Poster Making Competition on the occasion of Earth Day on the theme : Face of Climate Change.
Source : PIB Release, 5 June, 2013
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