How do we tackle the food crisis?

Seems like books are the subject about which I write, most of these days. I don't want my blog to be a boring book review blog (as one of friends told after looking into it).. nah.. not at all.. But what to do? I love books and that's what I feel like writing about most of the time.

The statistics about climate change and food crisis that appear in newspapers are really astounding. Today, I read an article, according to which the demand for food in 2050 will be 70% more than the total food that we produce now. I was sort of shocked. Is our food grain production going to increase substantially in the coming years? I don't think so.. Unless we do something miraculous about it.

I, myself am coming from a village in Kerala. During my childhood, people of my place used to rely heavily on agriculture. My village used to be so beautiful, with greenish, splendid paddy fields spread around. Those paddy fields are still there, but no one is interested in taking up agriculture as a profession these days. There is an enormous decrease in the availability of work force, due to the increased migration to the cities. My grand father owned some paddy fields, where, we have planted trees now.

But in spite of the falling food grain production, it is estimated that we do produce enough food to feed all the people currently living in this world. But, the problem is that a large amount of people are far too poor to buy anything to eat.

Our politicians(most of them, of course) have no time to seriously think about all these and do something effectively. They are all busy, playing the religious card or making money for their younger generations.

The rich, educated class of our country is also not actually doing anything. They are happy as far as they can stay rich. They live, leading a fake aristocratic life, being least bothered about the poverty or food crisis.

Cheers!! Slumdog team..

Today morning, I woke up at around 8.30. But as soon as I realised that I was that much late, I jumped out of the bed and ran towards the tv room. I didn't want to miss a single minute of the 81st academy awards. I had already missed a few moments. Tv room was crowded as it was a Manu-Chelsea encounter or a 20-20 match. Everyone clapped and rejoiced each and every time slumdog got an award. It was a total of eight. Well, deserved, according to me. The awards procured by Mr.Rasool and Mr.A.R.Rahman certainly turned out to be great for India. The awards didn't really surprise me other than the best actor. I expected it to be Brad Pitt. But I was glad to see Anthony Hopkins there, he is one of my favourites. It was him who introduced Brad.

Now, this what I want to say about slumdog. There has been plenty of arguments and debates going on regarding the movie "slumdog millionaire" in the recent few days and it's success in the Oscar arena has brought glory to India as well.. The movie's success was celebrated extensively in India while a few were keen to criticize it severely. The truth is that it really not is an Indian movie. It is a British movie in which a few Indians were involved and which describes the story in the background of slums in India. But it's our habit to treat everything which succeeds and has a little bit of involvement from us just like our own. Eventhough the good work of the Indians involved is to be appreciated, let us not forget that there has been better movies and better music in our regional languages.

Regarding the content of the movie, I strongly feel there is nothing wrong in showing the truth. Truth, however bitter it is, is to be accepted. The things which were shown in the movie do happen in our country, even worse than that. Eighty percent of the wealth in our country is in the hands of 1.8 % of the population. So let us not raise our voices against those who brought it into spotlight. Instead, let us do something to change the scenario.