KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 — Food going to waste is a global problem, and this is why the newly crowned Miss Earth Malaysia 2022 Dr Kajel Kaur Gill, 26, feels Malaysia too could play a role in addressing the problem.
She said food going to waste can be better managed by the government with a new law formulated on how excess food should be dealt with, instead of being discarded or destroyed.
The medical doctor who hails from Ipoh, Perak said Malaysia should emulate laws in certain developed nations that forbid supermarkets from to discarding or destroying unsold food products, and instead compel them to donate the excess food to those in need.
“By having such a law, she said the society would be indirectly taught to appreciate food and not to waste food.
“I hope this law constitutes the starting point of the fight against food waste by banning the discardment and destruction of food and instead facilitate food donation,” she told Bernama after being crowned as the new Miss Earth Malaysia 2022 at an event organised by Double Event Management here, Sunday night.
Dr Kajel Kaur said France adopted a law in 2016 to address food waste and it has been effective.
Food going to waste is a serious global problem with the figures provided by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations showing that an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally each year, which is one third of all food produced for human consumption.
In Malaysia, the previous Pakatan Harapan government in 2018 had proposed the formulation of Food Waste Act in efforts to stop the habit of wasting food in the society.
As the global population continues to grow the challenge should not be how to grow food, but to feed more people or animals while wasting less of what have been already produced.
“I look forward to advocating more about food wastage. As a stray animal feeder myself, I hope to see a Malaysia in which restaurants and caterers actively donate excess food to animal shelters that needs rice, animal bones and meat,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dr Kajel Kaur, said she has been feeding stray animals for many years and has plans to build a strong community that could carry out this initiative with her.
“This goes very well with my current Miss Earth Malaysia title, because caring for these stray animals directly reflects the environment they are in,” she said adding that she plans to register her non-governmental organisation called ‘No Strays on Streets’.
Dr Kajel Kaur also said that she plans to be part of Malaysia’s initiatives to protect endangered animals, by getting involved with WWF-Malaysia and their initiatives to protect elephants.
Meanwhile, the previous Miss Earth Malaysia Dr Nisha Thayananthan, another medical doctor, who crowned Dr Kajel Kaur at the event said it was a moment definitely to be cherished as a doctor crowning a fellow doctor.
Commenting on her Miss Earth Malaysia reign for a year, Dr Nisha said one of the most valuable lesson she learnt throughout her journey is being compassionate as ‘compassion brings our deepest truth into our actions’.
“Without compassion and respect for all of earth’s inhabitants, none of us will survive,” she added. — Bernama
