This article intends to understand how discarded vegetables and fruits in supermarkets of Bengaluru can be provided to cattle rather than letting them wastefully rot to become a breeding ground for diseases in rainy days.

Common vendor and big marts inefficiently handle vegetables/ fruits rather than utilising them better. They don’t know how it can be prevented from rotting. Many a times they simply sell the rotting stuff at lower costs to consumers who can’t afford higher prices. In most big retail marts, fruits like apples are often concealed by covering them with labels/stickers, by applying wax at the places they rot and by concealing in sealed covers.

Rather than cheating the buyers this way, they can identify the produce effectively before rotting, which they know won’t be easily bought by customers, and separate them. Later they can be arranged to feed cattles and animals who are feeding themselves near garbage bins on plastics around their own locality.

There are many NGOs and citizen bodies who are trying to collect food for the needy. They can be involved in proper segregation and distribution so that no vegetable/fruit goes waste.

Every vegetable/fruit comes from the hardwork of some farmer. It is only a disservice/disrespect to such effort that we allow wastage and indulge in cheating to cover costs.

How to organise this?

1) Arrange for baskets, so that buyers can place unwanted fruits separately, rather than throw it down or back to the pool

2) Periodically let the staff pack them and keep it ready for distribution.

3) NGOs/ volunteers can visit at a particular time to collect them and hand over to animal welfare organizations (AWO) or citizen bodies

4) AWOs/ citizen bodies can then distribute it to cattle/animals in designated places so that animals know/trust that they’ll be fed and not roam around looking for garbage

5) Interested people can collect the packed items and distribute them to cattle/animals in their locality. Many people love to feed animals but they are not equipped or trained in the right way of feeding, though they know that it is a noble cause to feed animals.

With careful thought, planning, mobilisation of volunteers and coordination of the above can easily be achieved. Civil bodies and citizen welare experts can be approached to finetune or revise the process suitable to locality needs.

Bangalore is already a trend-setter in many areas. With a focused effort, Bangalore city can show the world how food can be respected and given rightly to the needy.

References
None. Just observation.