Our biggest failure

Apparently, each Pole throws away 100 kg of food a year. In the UK, 7 million tonnes of food is wasted every year.

I hate throwing food away. I have a deep sense of food being something precious and important. Especially bread. It might have a lot to do with my Christianity, bread symbolises the body of Christ and in the Lord's prayer (Our Father), we ask for our daily bread. But I find it hard to be mindful with food in Oxford. Organising food shopping together is too much of a fuss (or is it?), cooking for one person is not the most convenient thing I've done (big packets of everything are a nightmare!) and so on... I also have myself to blame for this appalling food situation.

We have enough food to feed everyone, and yet 842 million people don't have enough to eat. I think this is one of the biggest failures of the society. I look around, even in my room and I see plenty. Plenty of electronic devices, clothes, books, pretty items of no apparent usefulness. Multiply it by a number of households in developed countries. And add up the money spent by those most wealthy of the world on private casinos, helicopters, yachts, diamond lingerie and all sorts of things that are by no means necessary.

Even with Earth so overpopulated as it is now, we can still ensure that each person has a decent standard of living. Food is basic. And so is water. I open my fridge and I think whether we need all these fancy products. I learn to appreciate simple things. Bread with butter. Milky tea and a piece of toast with jam. Oh yes, I do cook fancy food, especially when I get home, because it's the way I treat my family. But really it's not necessary. We would do without prawns, capers and mozzarella. So many people do without something that I consider plain and boring, something that is always within my reach. Something has gone terribly wrong, that we want more and more despite the fact that others have less and less.

I dream about a world where no one is hungry, no one sleeps on the streets or is lonely. Dreams do come true. I will cling to this hope.