By NANDITHA KRISHNA, Director, CPR Environmental Education Centre

First published by The Hindu, June 5, 2013

This year’s World Environment Day message is targeting food wastage and campaigning for correct food choices.  This is a problem of nations in North America and Europe, East Asia, and urban India.  For every child who goes to sleep hungry, an urban child probably throws away his plate of vegetables.

It is estimated by the FAO that approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food is being wasted every day throughout the world.  This is equivalent to the entire annual agricultural production of sub-Saharan Africa.  It is also estimated that one in seven people in the world goes to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of five die daily from hunger.

India was a food deficient country till the 1960’s when a terrible famine engulfed the whole…