Transforming Tomorrow
Learning to Sleep Hungry
Published: 7 April 2025 at 06:00 Europe/London
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Episode notes
Not everyone takes breakfast, lunch and dinner for granted. For millions, there is no guarantee of where their next meal will come from, or its quality.
Biraj Patnaik, Executive Director of the National Foundation for India, introduces us to the concepts and realties food poverty and food inequality, and how his organisation works with communities on the margins of Indian society towards enabling social justice.
We discuss how and why the right to food has been part of legislative discourse in India; how the caste system and gender discrimination influence who suffers malnutrition and starvation; the right to life; and the devastating prospect of teaching your child to sleep hungry.
How will climate change affect different communities – especially in the already baking heat of India? Where will extreme weather impact global crop production and food availability, especially in low-lying coastal areas?
We cover the complications of industrial agriculture; the lessons the world can take from India’s changed farming practices; the environmental pitfalls in relying on importing most of your country’s food; and the importance of learning how to live with nature from indigenous communities.
Find out more about the National Foundation for India here: https://www.nfi.org.in/
The start of the Lake District Farmers mini-series on Transforming Tomorrow can be found here: https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/lake-district-farmers
And discover Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach here: https://iep.utm.edu/sen-cap/
