WHAT IS FOOD WASTE?

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Food waste or food loss is food that is discarded or lost uneaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur at the 
stages of producing, processing, retailing and consuming.

THE PROBLEM OF FOOD WASTE.

Unfortunately, it is not an exaggeration to say that food waste is one of the biggest problems facing mankind today. Here's why:

A prolonged market failure.

Between 33-50% of all food produced globally is never eaten, and the value of this wasted food is worth over $1 trillion. To put that 
in perspective, in the USA food waste represents 1.3% of the total GDP. In India, the value of food wastage (harvest and 
post-harvest losses of major agricultural produce) is estimated at around ₹92,000 crore per annum. Food waste is a massive 
market inefficiency, the kind of which does not persist in other industries.

Food loss depending upon the region.






Morally wrong.

Meanwhile, 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. That is 1 in 9 people on the planet who are starving or malnourished. Each and every one of them could be sufficiently fed on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the USA, UK and Europe 
each year.

Because we have a globalised food supply system, demand for food in the West can drive up the price of food grown for export in developing countries, as well as displace the growth of crops to feed native populations and drive accelerated degradation of natural habitats.

And, hunger is not just a problem that's happening 'somewhere else' - in the UK for example, over 1 million people accessed a food bank last year, whilst in the USA 40 million Americans live in food poverty.

Environmentally Disastrous.

Food waste is really bad for the environment. It takes a land mass larger than China to grow the food each year that is ultimately never eaten - land that has been deforested, species that have been moved, soil that has been degraded - all to produce food that we then just throw away. In addition, food that is never eaten accounts for 25% of all freshwater consumption globally.

Not only are all of the resources that went into creating the uneaten food wasted (land, water, labour, energy, manufacturing, packaging, etc), but when food waste goes to landfill, which is where the vast majority of it ends up, it decomposes without access to oxygen and creates methane, which is 23x more deadly than carbon dioxide.

Every which way you look at it food waste is a major culprit in destroying our planet, and in fact, if food waste were a country, it 
would be third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the USA.

Ways to reduce food waste.

  • Take a shopping list
  • Buy fewer groceries more frequently
  • Cook only what you need
  • Store food better
  • Understand expiration dates
  • Make leftovers your friend
  • Grow your own herbs
  • Freeze for later
  • Compost or donate the leftovers
  • Preserve seasonal produce

 Source: https://olioex.com/food-waste/the-problem-of-food-waste/
             

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