Healthy, Safe and Sustainable Food for All – Consumers Association Penang

Speech by Mr. S.M. Mohamed Idris, President of the Consumers’ Association of Penang at CAP’s Food Fair on 8 October 2016

Welcome to CAP’s food fair which is held in conjunction of the Green Action Week, a global campaign to promote sustainable consumption. Each year in October, organisations around the world take joint action to promote a common cause. This year 43 civil society organisations in 31 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America are participating in this campaign.

Green Action Week is an initiative by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) and is carried out in coordination with Consumers International (CI). The Green Action Week theme this year is “Safe and Sustainable Food for All”.

Presently, consumers are facing ever increasing health problems due to chemical residue in vegetables, antibiotics in poultry, consumption of highly processed and junk food.

In response to such adverse impacts, one of our proposed solutions is chemical-free growing of food crops which would deliver substantial increases in food production at lower costs and consequences, without causing harm to the environment or threatening public health. Growing your own food at an individual or community level will ensure food safety, food security and easily available nutritious food.

Sprouting which requires less care and space, is another way of creating and savoring your own food. You can sprout green gram, chickpeas, fenugreek, lentils and other suitable pulses and grains and harvest them within a short period of time.

Affordable, healthy natural nutrient-rich food is demonstrated here in this fair so that everyone can avail to safe and sustainable food. For example one cup of sesame seeds has four times more calcium than one cup of milk. You can make sesame balls or add on sesame to savouries and porridges.

Each tradition has its own super food that needs to be revived. In preparation for our fair, CAP officers had a tough time sourcing authentic healthy food that is marketed. There is abundance of highly processed food that lack nutrition. We need to replace this unhealthy food with whole food that is free from additives or other artificial substances.

Create space for your own garden at home, however small it is. We also need to instill in our children the benefits of natural food and the importance of growing our own food. Food safety and sustainability starts from home.

Eat healthy, live healthy, be healthy.