Monday 25 July 2011

Eco-Ramadan #1: Waste

I think I've written this more than once on this blog. 

But I just can't believe it's Ramadan again (almost).

This month of spiritual cleansing is one I look forward to every year and this year I have given myself an additional target:  to tell everybody about Oxfam's GROW campaign.

GROW is the project I've taken on this summer, which I'll post more about in detail later. In a nutshell it's about the global food crisis, in other words it's Oxfam's most ambitious campaign to feed the world by 2050. That's 9 billion people. And it will only happen through a vigorous change of the current food system which is complex and completely broken.

You may be wondering why I've chosen Ramadan of all months to promote this campaign. Well besides from it falling in the middle of my summer holidays which technically is the only time I'm free to do something like this, there's also this oh too familiar sight spurring me on:


Aha, the left overs from that iftar party at the mosque or friend's house. The iftar where there was too much food and not enough space in our now constricted stomachs to consume it. And not enough space in our fridges to take home and use for tomorrow's iftar, because they're already packed with yesterday's leftovers and the day before leftovers.

The Qur'an tells us something very simple about wastage: 
"Eat – But waste not by excess: for God does not love the wasters" (6:141).
  
But every Ramadan we seem to forget this message. Actually, food wastage is a HUGE problem in the UK with the average family losing £50 a month to food that's thrown away. We actually waste as much as a quarter of the food we buy. Somehow, in many Muslim households this issue worsens during Ramadan. If you write yourself a memo every time you throw something away in the first week of Ramadan and stick it on your fridge you'll see what I mean. 
Generally we all hate wastage and do as much as we can to avoid it. But EVERYONE has to been to a party or gathering where leftovers look something like the picture above. 

Oxfam's GROW campaign coincides perfectly with Ramadan. How can we waste £50 a month on food when in Chad families have as little as  $1.23 to spend on their weekly meals? How can we scrape  the leftovers of our iftar meals in the bin when some families have little more than a date to break their fasts with?
It's not fair and it's not right. The system is completely out of balance.
Keep checking this blog for updates on my campaign, in the mean time check out this website:
http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
Please keep Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya in your prayers and donate to help alleviate the suffering of the drought.

1 comment:

  1. As-salamu 'alaykum.

    JazakAllah khayr for pointing us to this new campaign. As for wastage of food, it cannot be stressed enough, although sometimes I find myself to blame, and will have to strive to be more cautious with how I shop for food.

    That people are found consuming and wasting more food during Ramadan than ever is incredibly ironic and shameful. Insha'Allah we will take heed of the Qur'anic injunction against wastage, and that gluttony is a sin that is all too easy to fall prey to after a day of abstinence.

    Luth

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