Download - Right to Safe Food
We are what we eat
For thousand's of year, this fact has been reinforced.
All the great saints, sages and books have insisted this for thousands of years in Hindu scriptures.
It is now a well established scientific fact that change in intake of food affects our life manifold
The food we eat
Affects our body
Affects our thoughts and behavior
Affects our social acceptance
Affects our health
Affects our wellbeing and wellness
Affects our genes and procreation
Affects the health of our children and future generation
THE FIRST TRUTH ABOUT FOOD
Food affects our life in all manners possible. All creatures born on this earth have a right to healthy life-giving food.
RIGHT TO FOODIs the first among the
RIGHT TO LIFE
What takes away life Poison – As contained in insecticides,
pesticides, weedicides, etc.
Chemical Fertilizers – Which becomes a part of the food and disturb the balance of soil
Unnatural treatment of food, etc.
Now GENETICAL MODIFICATION of our plants and animals – WARNING
Etc...
How diseases are treated
A few milligram of chemical/ natural extract is given to you (Medicine). You eat it for a couple of days and you recover from illness.
In Homeopathy, in some cases a highly diluted substance (upto nano-gram) level is given to you as admixture and you recover from illness.
If small nano-gram, micro-gram and milli-gram of chemical can affect your wellbeing and health in one direction; there is no reason for you to believe that it will not deteriorate your health. In-fact it's the cause of most of the ailments in todays world.
World War II Poisons
Uptill World War II, inorganic and biological substances, such as Paris green, lead arsenate, calcium arsenate, selenium compounds, lime–sulfur, pyrethrum, thiram, mercury, copper sulfate, derris, and nicotine were used, but the amounts and frequency of use were limited, and most pest control employed cultural methods such as rotations, tillage, and manipulation of sowing dates. After World War II the use of pesticides mushroomed, and there are currently more than 1,600 pesticides available and about 4.4 million tons used annually, at a cost of more than $20 billion.
LAW
Article 21 : Protects right to life. This right in itself is sufficient to protect your right to healthy food even in absence of any other law.
Directive Principle
Article 47: Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health
Directive Principle
Article 48A: Protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of forests and wild life The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country.
Directive Principle
Article The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing -
(a) that the citizen, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood;
(b) that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good;
(c) that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment;
…........
International Organizations
Unfortunately the role of international organizations, including the UN has been counter-productive
The international organisations have become a tool in the hand of corporates and others who solely survive on exploitation of nature and people from less developed nations
UN and many such international bodies manipulate our systems and force down things which are not good for our people and country. Anyone who raises his/her voice is excluded from the system. There is no freedom of expression too within the UN and other such bodies. There are well-guarded limits to express and raise an issue within these bodies.
Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006
Section 3: Definitions
(a) " adulterant" means any material which is or could be employed for making the food unsafe or sub- standard or mis- branded or containing extraneous matter;
Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006
(g) " contaminant" means any substance, whether or not added to food, but which is present in such food as a result of the production (including operations carried out in crop husbandry, animal husbandry or veterinary medicine), manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food or as a result of environmental contamination and does not include insect fragments, rodent hairs and other extraneous matter;
FSSA 2006
(j) " food" means any substance, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, which is intended for human consumption and includes primary food to the extent defined in clause (ZK), genetically modified or engineered food or food containing such ingredients, infant food, packaged drinking water, alcoholic drink, chewing gum, and any substance, including water used into the food during its manufacture, preparation or treatment but does not include any animal feed, live animals unless they are prepared or processed for placing on the market for human consumption, plants prior to harvesting, drugs and medicinal products, cosmetics, narcotic or psychotropic substances: Provided that the Central Government may declare, by notification in the Official Gazette, any other article as food for the purposes of this Act having regards to its use, nature, substance or quality;
FSSA 2006
(zk) " primary food" means an article of food, being a produce of agriculture or horticulture or animal husbandry and dairying or aquaculture in its natural form, resulting from the growing, raising, cultivation, picking, harvesting, collection or catching in the hands of a person other than a farmer or fisherman;
UNSAFE FOOD
(zz) " unsafe food" means an article of food whose nature, substance or quality is so affected as to render it injurious to health:- (i) by the article itself, or its package thereof, which is composed, whether wholly or in part, of poisonous or deleterious substances; or …... (ix) by the article having been infected or infested with worms, weevils or insects; or …
(xii) by virtue of containing pesticides and other contaminants in excess of quantities specified by regulations.
QUESTION?
How safe limit of insecticides and pesticides
are decided?
Interesting facts may emerge
FSSA 2006
(k) " food additive" means any substance not normally consumed as a food by itself or used as a typical ingredient of the food, whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which to food for a technological (including organoleptic) purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food results, or may be reasonably expected to result (directly or indirectly), in it or its by- products becoming a component of or otherwise affecting the characteristics of such food but does not include" contaminants" or substances added to food for maintaining or improving nutritional qualities;
FSSA 2006
(u) " hazard" means a biological, chemical or physical agent in, or condition of, food with the potential to cause an adverse health effect;
(zm) " risk", in relation to any article of food, means the probability of an adverse effect on the health of consumers of such food and the severity of that effect, consequential to a food hazard;
RISK ANALYSIS
(zn) " risk analysis", in relation to any article of food, means a process consisting of three components, i. e., risk assessment, risk management and risk communication;
RISK ASSESSMENT
(zo) " risk assessment" means a scientifically based process consisting of the following steps: (i) hazard identification, (ii) hazard characterisation, (iii) exposure assessment, and (iv) risk characterisation;
RISK COMMUNICATION
(zp) " risk communication" means the interactive exchange of information and opinions throughout the risk analysis process concerning risks, risk- related factors and risk perceptions, among risk assessors, risk managers, consumers, industry, the academic community and other interested parties, including the explanation of risk assessment findings and the basis of risk management decisions;
RISK MANAGEMENT
(zq) " risk management" means the process, distinct from risk assessment, of evaluating policy alternatives, in consultation with all interested parties considering risk assessment and other factors relevant for the protection of health of consumers and for the promotion of fair trade practices, and, if needed, selecting appropriate prevention and control options;
Ground Level Facts
Food we eat is laced with unspecified amount of poison many of which are even banned in many parts of the world.
No lab exists to regularly test the presence of poison in food.
No studies exist on safety standards in India. Most are doctored studies by the industry handed over to the ministry.
Situation is extremely bad …... chemicals and poison form part of our daily diet
What we must DEMAND
Right to choose our food
Right to have labeling on all food products about the chemical and insecticide/ pesticide residues on all food items (batch-to-batch)
Right to get any food item tested immediately without any delay and without any exorbitant charges.
Right to have labeling on all GM foods
We Demand
Labeling and declaration on all food items about;
(1) Insecticide, Pesticide (Poison) contents on all food items at all stages
(2) About the fact if any of the ingredient used has been genetically modified
(3) About the possible side-effects of the residue chemicals and GM substance in the food items
