Wedded to Waste, Loyal to Ignorance, Blind to Poverty

The Associated Press: India weddings faulted for prodigious food waste: "As the ranks of India's wealthy surge with rapid economic growth, many families are staging extravagant displays of food at their children's weddings to show off their newfound affluence.
The prodigious waste that follows has horrified many in a nation where food prices are skyrocketing and tens of millions of young children are malnourished.
At the recent wedding of the son of a ruling party leader, more than a 100 dishes representing Thai, Chinese, Mediterranean and Indian cuisines were served to over 30,000 guests. About 20 percent would've been thrown away.
India's Food Minister K.V. Thomas wants to curtail what has become known as the Big Fat Indian Wedding.
He says about one-fifth of the food served at weddings and social gatherings is discarded.
'It's a criminal waste,' Thomas told The Associated Press.
The tons of food wasted at social gatherings across the country each day contrasts sharply with the food shortages, often bordering on chronic starvation, faced by millions of poor Indians."