Connecting Native to New: A Way Forward
摘要
By 2030, the world population will reach 9 billion or perhaps more. Nutritional levels of food produced are reducing due to several reasons, climate change being one major cause. “How does the world feed itself?” is the question that policymakers are grappling with. Commercial farming is definitely not the way forward. So, what is? This chapter starts with the authors’ experiences of walking and talking with the village communities. They listened and learnt about the art of resilience and survival from those living on the fringe. So why not learn from the tribal communities that survive as well as leafy greens, along with trees like Khejri, Mahua, and other plants? What’s needed is a robust plan to reintroduce wild edibles that are both people as well as, planet-friendly, and create interactions of urban dwellers with forest communities. This will make the city dwellers understand their dependence on forests in their daily lives and why an urgent call is needed for preserving them. This means individuals and organizations have to interact more to educate the future generation. This chapter points out that to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), wild edibles are the future of the nutritional well-being of the ever-growing population of the world. This will help reach the goals of zero hunger, good health and well-being, reduce inequalities, encourage mindful consumption and production, thus leading to climate action.