Noodles, pizzas and other junk food are causing diseases among the children, according to Vandana Shiva, the renowned environmental activist and Director of Navdanya.
Delivering Sri Chukkapalli Pitchaiah memorial lecture on ‘Seed freedom and food freedom in times of globalization’, organised by Sri Chukkapalli Pitchaiah Foundation here on Thursday, she said a majority of the children were being denied of nutritional food. Today, 25 per cent of the schoolchildren in Delhi suffer from obesity.
Many have adult onset diabetes and globally two billion people are victims of diseases linked to the junk food, she pointed out. Referring to farmers’ suicide, she said the data released by National Crime Records Bureau for the year 2012 presents a more worrying scenario of such incidents in the country. The situation is worst in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. These two are main cotton producing States where more than 95 per cent land is covered by Bt Cotton.
In Maharashtra, farmers’ suicides jumped sharply to 3,786 in 2012 from 3,337 in 2011, registering an increase of 449. It was the worst annual increase in the last seven years. Andhra Pradesh also witnessed upward trend from 2,206 in 2011 to 2,572 in 2012 registering an increase of 366.
