ANT LECTURES

Source: my.englishclub.com

Whenever I see an anthill, I usually grab a chair and order some popcorn. Because those little things always teach me big lessons--Lessons often overlooked by most of us.

This year's World Environment day theme is; 'Think.Eat.Save'. It's also the slogan for an anti-food waste campaign launched by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization inspired by a discovery that at least 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year. When I first saw this, I screamed!! 1.3 BILLION TONNES?? Do you know how many hungry kids in refugee camps around the world that can feed over and over again? I mean over and over and over again. . .

When you think of food waste, many of us feel it's only the rich that'll be guilty of this. But if you look closely at this issue you'd discover we are all guilty(the rich and the 'not so rich'). I've been guilty at one point or the other; dishing that extra plate of rice even when my belly had exceeded its elastic limit, or even buying a satchet of water, taking a few gulps and throwing the rest in the trash. . .

Yeah.. we've all been guilty. And this is where we need to look at the ants. Personally I feel the ants have the most effective and sustainable food consumption cycle in the world!! Really they do. . .I'm not hyping them.

Source: Sweetclipart.com

The Holy book in Proverbs chapter 6 verses 6 to 8 documents this process. I guess you must have seen ants foraging in your kitchen, and you might have stepped on a couple of them before. But that little foraging they do--the one grain of rice, the little dead fly,the little sugar,etc--all add up to make up their food reserve. But also, They don't just gulp everything at once. They eat only what they need in little proportions. Although small in size, these little things have mastered their appetite. Sometime ago WHO said 12% of the world is obessed--we claim to be higher mammals, but a large percentage of us have not even mastered our 'food cravings'--This is the reason we waste food!!

When we were younger(my siblings and I), Mum usually kept a cane nearby while we were eating, forcing us to swallow the rice till the last grain. ''Nothing must be left on the plate'', she usually said, and I really did'nt understand her back then. But now I do. Humanity really needs to Think.Eat.Save. How can we be wasting 1.3 billion tonnes of food annualy when there are many people around the world sleeping on empty tummies every night?? How sustainable is that?? Learn from the ants guys, Learn!


By: Ebenezar Wikina
6paragraphs for World Environment Day 2013
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