Future of Sustainable Food (2)

In this blog, and more to follow I want to bring ideas and suggestions closer, in an easy to understand way, to a bigger audience, without using too many complex or scientific explanations, but with easy to follow data and explanations and suggestions for each individual who wants to support to make our planet better for ourselves and for our offsprings, and for the many people that don't have the opportunity to act.

In the first part of my "Future of Sustainable Food (1)" I informed about Proteins, and what the advantages are of switching to a more plant forward proteins and diets.

Today I want to talk about food waste, and how food waste prevention and reduction can support our approach to a more circular food system.

The idea is I not wanting to force personal choices upon individuals, or patronise people, but i believe that focussing on climate conversation, and sharing information on individual behaviour can create the needed awareness, which will then hopefully support our way towards changing to a more sustainable approach and changing our habits

Food Waste

Food waste is "Food that was intended for human consumption but that was wasted and lost before, during or after having had the opportunity to be used for human consumption".

This lost can occur anywhere throughout the entire production/supply chain of our food industry, starting at the farms itself, through harvesting, through processing and production, storage and transportation, and finally in supermarkets, restaurants and our own private households.

"It’s an undeniable fact that food waste is one of the biggest environmental problems of our modern lifetime".

Potentially as much as 40% of all foods grown or produced, which make up for 2.5 billion tonnes, all around the world, are wasted every year.........!!!!!, just quickly think about it, how many zeros that are 2.500.000.000.000 Kg. This volume of food waste globally is enough to feed 3 billion people. Knowing this and then also knowing that 11% of our global population, around 800 Million people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, this should be a wake up call for every human being

Now think again, it really is a proven fact that we could support nearly 4 times the amount of people on our planet that don't have the resource to food. and that just because we unnecessarily throw away and waste so much food for no sensible or explainable reason.

Every single person on our planet understands, that wasting food makes absolutely no sense, and can be very easily prevented, when we think logically about it, but still we do it, we waste far too much food for no reason on a daily basis.

Beside this, food just being wasted for none or minor reasons has much more significant effects, as just disposing it for human consumption needs. Food waste also has a huge impact on the environment itself, on global and national economies, and on food security and nutrition.

One of the consequences of this 40% global food being wasted, leads to an increasing and persistent global demand for more food, is driving fertile agricultural soils becoming useless, and contributing to soil degradation and deforestation, which as a result, destroys our precious natural habitats and biodiversity and is therefore disrupting our entire ecosystems.

Looking prospective to 2050, the worlds population will likely hit the 9 billion mark, which means, global food production needs an additional oversize increase, to meet this demand. This food demand undoubtedly and with a very high possibility, will create a food shortage and a humanitarian crisis never seen before, on this scale, on our planet.

 Therefore now its the absolutely final and urgent call to all of us, to address the global food waste problem right now, to ensure that the world adapts towards a much more global sustainable and circular food system. and that reducing food waste is of imminent importance for all of us and our Planet. There is no planet B

To share with you some more information and data, of how shocking food waste really is, here some actual food waste facts, to create more awareness of what our momentary global and personal behaviour is actually causing, right now, on our Planet

• Fresh fruits and vegetables are the most commonly disposed of food, many of which are already thrown out at the retail level due to "quality standards", emphasising appearance over its functionality. Much of these products are wasted because it is deemed too “ugly” to eat, amounting to 60 million tons of fruits and vegetables every year.  

• Taking into account all the resources used to grow our global demand for food, the amount of food waste, wasted, requires up to 21% of freshwater, 19% of fertilisers, 18% of cropland, and 21% of landfill volumes.

• The water used to produce the amount of food wasted we actually waste, could be used for an approximately 9 billion people, 200 litres of water per person per day.

• The annual global per capita food waste is about 110 -130 Kg per Person per Year 

• Food loss and waste globally, accounts for an estimated 4.4 giga tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

• If food would be a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas polluter on our Planet.

• Developed and developing countries waste roughly the same amount of food every year, between around 670 and 630 million tons respectively.

• Breaking it down by food groups losses, and waste per year it would look roughly as followed: - 30% for cereals, 40-50% for root crops and fruit and vegetables, 20% for oil seeds and meat and dairy and finally 35% for fish.

• If 25% of the food, currently being lost or wasted globally was saved, it would be enough to feed the over 800 million people around the world suffering from hunger and malnutrition.

• as food losses translate automatically into lost income for farmers and therefore to higher prices for consumers, this should give us all an easy economic incentive to reduce food waste.

• 25% of the worlds freshwater supply is used to grow al the food waste that was never eaten on an annual basis.

• In Europe, 40-60% of fish caught are discarded because they do not meet supermarket quality standards.

• Around 88 million tonnes of food waste are generated annually in the EU.4 This is equal to. 174 kg per person or 143 billion euros or 170 000 000 tonnes of CO2

• according to latest estimates around 931 million tonnes of food waste that are generated annually consist of: 60% from households, 26% from food service and farms, 14% from transport and retail.

  
  

We all, as consumers, can have a direct impact on the food waste problem in the world by paying attention to our own personal behaviour, and by create awareness and bringing all these facts closer to all human beings on our planet .

If you want to reduce your food waste at home, or in your close environment you can read more about "the how" in my next blog of "Future of Sustainable Food" part three.

PFJ September 2024