Food Security Issue in Pakistan

Food Insecurity in Pakistan

The World Food Summit defines food security as following: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs, and their food preferences are met for an active and healthy life."

Clearly, all human beings have a right to be free from hunger and to adequate food.

In Pakistan, there is a lack of fair distribution of food over its nation, producers’ suffering economic losses, and discrimination of food security among Pakistani women, problem of chemical usage on food, and problems of politics in food.

According to WHO, the following five principles of food hygiene must be considered:

1.       Prevent contaminating food with pathogens spreading from people, pets, and pests.
2.       Separate raw and cooked foods to prevent contaminating the cooked foods.
3.       Cook foods for the appropriate length of time and at the appropriate temperature to kill     pathogens.
4.       Store food at the proper temperature.
5.       Do use safe water and cooked materials.

In Pakistan, the above fundamental principle has been ignored since Pakistani government was indifferent of ongoing food insecurity. Such an indifference of food caused degradation of ecology in the nation. As food producers violate the food hygiene principles, consumers have experienced safety issues on their health. 

The producers have gained rich and start to dominate food market over the nation. As a result, agriculture has become a rich-men business. So poor farmers experience economic losses and rich investigators have replaced food crops with cash crops. This problem in terms of economics occurs a vicious circle of food production and consumption. 

 More economic profits the rich producers take, more economic losses the poor farmers take, and more consumers endanger health issues. 

The food should not be remained a subject of economics or politics, but a subject of human rights. All people have right to have adequate food with proper quality and quantity.

If food producers keep running business to make profits without concerning their consumers’ health and if Pakistani government keeps its indifference, they will lose their consumers or citizens to run Pakistan.

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/forwarded-news/AHRC-FAT-016-2013