食品行業能做什麼

這是一個世界,每年產生的全球糧食盈餘。我們試圖解釋這一事實數百萬人挨餓,或者在附近饑餓的狀態,盡管這盈餘,在政治、經濟失敗,分銷網絡、貧困和壞政府。但這種intellectualisation人類的苦難——盡管它的真理——隻是安撫我們的良知。對於我們這些幸運生活在一個富裕的西方社會,它是如此容易經過門口的乞丐比處理他的問題。讓“社會”或援助組織處理他或她,我們說。或許那些感覺無效的麵對這樣的一個大問題的例子是一個很聰明的人,在19世紀末,看著周圍的人在雪地裏挨餓,看到了豐衣足食的合理化的貧困的方式。他總結道,結果是無所作為。概述了在他的文章中我們怎麼辦呢?列夫·托爾斯泰正確地得出結論,一個唯一能做的就是專注於個人的困境。你必須直視他們,問:“我能做什麼?”,然後繼續做。 As professionals working in the food industry, we must ask ourselves the same question, looking at particular situations, rather than getting paralysed by the immensity of the 'global situation'. The food industry and those who work for it represent a vast resource that has been underused, underexploited by those whose business it is to get help to the millions of those starving. There are signs that the food industry is starting to recognise that it has a role to play in alleviating world hunger, even if they are partially or wholly acting out of self interest. The move toward fair trade products is one example. We are not talking about direct food donations here, but of an invaluable expertise built up over a long period of sourcing, processing, conserving and distributing foods. We are talking about devoting this resource to potentially alleviating the misery faced millions of people, or a few thousand, or even a few hundred. We are talking about the millions of euros worth of research and development that could be harnessed to good use in the 40 countries that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) today classifies as facing emergency food shortages. That classification represents about 800 million people worldwide who live with constant hunger, and 25,000 people who die each day, mostly from severe malnutrition. Last month it was heartening to see world hunger present in many of the topics during a bi-annual conference of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST). Pierre Feillet, chairman of the meeting in Nantes, called on researchers to focus on the challenge of working out ways, no matter how minor, to meet the challenge of feeding everyone on earth. Food safety techniques, nanotechnology, and other research represent an opportunity for knowledge transfer for use in getting help to the hungry. But it is not just the food technologists who need to get into the action. Other professionals have just as much to give. To harness that expertise food companies could perhaps allow their employees to devote one or two hours a week to helping organisations involved in hunger alleviation. For example, a supply chain professional could act as an advisor to an organisation trying to figure out the best way to transport food aid over a long distance. All for little or no cost to a company, that can only benefit from positive publicity. Such a system has worked in other companies with a social conscience. And even if such efforts represent a drop in the bucket, it is still help that was not there before. So what can you do? Start the drops flowing, as drops have a tendency to fill buckets if the tap is left open long enough.艾哈邁德ElAmin是20年的商業作家的地位,有專門的開發問題,技術、國際業務和離岸金融,在加入決定新聞媒體的編輯FoodProductionDaily.com。如果你想要評論這篇文章請電子郵件ahmed.elamin@decisionnews.com。