IMPACT OF GLOBAL FOOD INDUSTRY ON HUMAN HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT

Global Findings:

• Name of report: “Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use.”
  
  
• The “hidden cost” i.e. the damage that the modern food industry does to human health, development and the environment costs to the world is $12 trillion a year — equivalent to China’s GDP.
  
  
• Global over-dependence on a relatively small number of staple foods leaves populations vulnerable to crop failures, with climate change adding to the strain.
  
  
• The report proposes a series of solutions, from encouraging more diverse diets to improve health and reduce dependency on specific crops, to giving more support to the types of farming that can restore forests, a key tool in fighting climate change.
  
  

Findings on India:

• India has 4 per cent of global freshwater resources to support 19 per cent of the world’s population. Some 80 per cent of water in India goes to agriculture, primarily from groundwater sources, which is unsustainable.
  
  
• Existing government policies – EatRight Movement of the FSSAI in 2017, the National Food Security Act of 2013 and the Zero Budget Natural Farming programme in Andhra Pradesh – already address critical transitions that the new report recommends.