INDONESIAN SCHOLARS JOURNAL

The Broken Food System in Our Planet: How to

Feed You Better and Make Food Sustainably
Rizqa Febriliany Putri
Abstract. Every night one in seven people go to bed hungry-that is almost one billion people worldwide. Ironically, 60 % of the
hungry are women. In Indonesia itself, 1/10 of Indonesian populations are hungry and 12 % are the poor (2012, BPS). The data
suggested they have no enough food. People are hungry not because there is not enough food produced but because our food
system is broken. In fact, 80 % of the worlds hungry are directly involved in food production. High temperature, drought, and
monsoon are the sine quanon of climate change and it affected the food production and prices. High temperature can cause the
sea-level rise. It can have a tremendous impact on rice production in Indonesia, a 95% reduction in local rice supply (down
300,000 tons) and maize output by 10,000 tons, due to inundation. In Russia, it destroy millions of acres of wheat causing wheat
production plunged 30 % and the price intentionally increased by 85 %. Moreover, 1997 El Nino droughts affected
approximately 426,000 hectares of rice in Indonesia. Heavy rainfall and multiple typhoons hit Southeast Asia and severely
affecting 6 % of the regions total rice area and driving prices up by 30 % in some areas. Otherwise, in both industrialized and
developing countries, unacceptable quantities of food are wasted but for entirely different reasons. In developing countries,
waste nearly one third of food supply. This waste was caused by inadequate access to better storage, transportation, and
refrigeration. In contrast, in industrialized countries consumers and retailers throw away about one third of all food that is
produced. There have been cuts of more than 40 % in government aid to small-scale producers specifically in landreform lower
than the aid to manage any other land in this country, even though the majority of the hungry are involved in food production
(2013, APBN). How do we can make a change? A change can happen by investing in small-scale farmers. We can tackle extreme
hunger by helping small-scale producers grow more food more sustainably. By providing women who are hungry with equal
access to farming resources such as tools, seeds, and transport, about 100-150 million people could have enough to eat. Of
course, we also have to change our behavior and reduce waste. We have to feed ourselves better. So, next time we go to the
groceries we should think local, choose organic, and know our food.
Keywords: Climate change, food sustainably, food system, hungry, poverty, small-scale producers, waste