The year was 1948. After years of war, the dust had finally settled. Nations were reeling at what had happened during the Second World War. They wanted to make sure that a war of that substance and scale never happened again, and in this spirit, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born. Yesterday was its 61st birthday. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights outlines the basic rights that all people have, just because they are human. However, this is not to say that all people on earth have achieved these rights. I'd hazard a guess that most of us do not get to express our right to free speech, our right to adequate food and shelter, and even our right to a nationality on a consistent basis.
Food is one of those rights. To be exact, it is article 25: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food." Why is it important to look at food as a right? We often think of the right to freedom of speech as an important right that we need to uphold. The flip side of this right is responsibility - the responsibility to ensure that the right to free speech is protected. Yet when it comes to the lack of food, we bemoan the circumstances that got people there, talking about the economy and joblessness and the bad weather or poor infrastructure. But what about our role and our responsibility to make sure that everyone can grow their own food and access healthy food? Is that not the flip side of the right to food?
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