Global Food: Don’t Waste It, Consume It

BY: Chukwudi Charles Olumba
       Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki and NAPP Scholar [2019]

Source:http://www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste/en/

Across global food systems, food loss and waste is a widespread issue, posing a challenge to food security, food safety, the economy, and environmental sustainability. It affects food supply chains by lowering income for food producers, increasing costs for food consumers, and reducing access to food. Food waste, as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO), is food fit for human consumption that is wasted at the retail or consumer level. Food loss differs from waste, as it is food that is lost during production, post harvest, and processing. Food waste is most common in developed countries while food loss is most common in developing countries. Both food waste and loss account for 30% of all food produced globally. For instance, In the United States, about 22 percent of all available food is wasted. Food is the nation’s single largest type of waste.

The world population is currently about 7.7 billion people, however the United Nations project that this number will rocket by 1.2 percent every year, totally 8.5 billion people in 2030 and almost 10 billion in 2050 (United Nations, 2017). The key issue is that, by the same 2050, the world is expected to generate 3.40 billion tons of waste annually, increasing drastically from today’s 2.01 billion tons (Kaza et. al., 2018). These wastes not only mean losing life-supporting nutrition but the vain use of resources used for food production and the needless production of greenhouse gases.

“The question is how are we to feed those who don’t have enough to eat currently and produce enough food for the incoming 10 billion people by 2050?”

The challenge is further exacerbated by the following:

    

•  Shifting diet of people from grain based to animal based diet as nations especially developing   nations becomes affluent.

•  Removing from the supply chain fresh produce that deviates from what is considered optimal   in terms of color, size and shape during sorting operations.                  

• Discarding large quantities of edible food often unused or left over or because they are close                to,  at  or beyond the “best-before” date.

• Foods that are often unused or left over and discarded from household kitchens and eating                   establishments.

Agricultural practitioners require core resources of land, water, and energy for food production but unfortunately this inputs are finite and in competition for use with other human endeavors. In the last few decades, food demand surges associated with global population growth have been met by the increasing use of these resources, however, given recent trend in dietary preferences shifting away from crop based diet to consumption of animal products, implies that more pressure would be exerted on these finite resources. The core of the challenge is found in the fact that livestock products are far less resource efficient when compared to crop produce. For example, same amount of land needed to produce enough crop for feeding 19 to 22 people per year would produce meat enough to supply only 1 or 2 people. This is problematic because if agricultural production is to satisfy dietary preferences, and with the current practices of food wastage, it means more waste of finite resources.

Food waste occurs throughout the agricultural supply chain, right from production in the field to final consumption at home and is perceived a major drawback to achieving food security. Godfray and Garnett (2014) asserts that research on agriculture and food security focused on agricultural production rather than the entire food system - from production to consumption. As the development level of a country increases so does the food waste problem generally move further up the supply chain. In the developed countries food waste occurs to a significant extent at the consumer’s level, whereas in developing countries food wastage occurs mostly at the early or middle end of supply chain. The food waste problems in developed countries is attributed mainly to uncoordinated acts of actors in the food supply chain and wasteful consumer’s behavior. For example, supermarkets reject produce at any slightest defect in appearance,consumers shop excessively and the surplus ends in the bin.

Furthermore, wastage occurs in homes due to misinterpretation of ‘best-before’ or ‘use by’ labelling. Cheap food prices make food undervalued and is a major cause of consumer’s wasteful behavior, however, this is not to suggest that food prices should be increased but rather government should proactively devise and implement policies to change consumers and retailers’ habits.

Notwithstanding, a flood of new concepts are emerging in the global fight against food waste. The majority of these efforts are focused on recovery, and some involve prevention.They include:

Food Recovery Approach and food donations

     Recovery involves the capture and redistribution of food items that have already been produced. The most desirable recovery effort is to get that extra food to people in need. Beyond that, excess food can be diverted to animal feed, or processed in industrial applications like new products and energy, or processed in composting operations to amend soils for food production.Recovery efforts are preferable to landfills, where food waste decomposes and creates methane emissions that contribute to global warming. For example, the city of Ningbo in China diverts food waste from apartment buildings to an anaerobic digestion facility (Lee et al. 2014). In several cities in Sweden, biogas is produced from food waste to power vehicles and generate heat (Swedish Gas Centre, Swedish Gas Association,

      

and Swedish Biogas Association 2008). According to Chrisafis (2016), France was the first country in the world since 2016 to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food, forcing them instead to donate it to charities and food banks.

Collaboration between Public and Private sectors to reduce Food Waste

Public sector should collaborate with the private sector to reduce waste across the supply chain. This can be achieved by preventing the production of food items that travel from farm

to market to consumer only to end up in landfills, thus, avoiding all of the negative environmental impacts associated with that process (resource consumption, water pollution, soil depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, and much more). Further, the “saved” resources from prevention (including labor cost) can be devoted to more productive purposes of feeding the nation while preserving the environment.

In 2016, the government of Italy approved a law to enhance collaboration among key stakeholders, educate the public, encourage food donations from business through financial incentives, and promote reusable and recyclable packaging (Azzuro, Gaiani, and Vittuari 2016). 

For example, a Conad market in Italy launched the idea of “Last Minute Market”. The store had multiple 50%-off sections to sell older goods. The items that didn’t sell after a day there would then be donated.

Clarifying information related to food safety and food date labels

The issue of interpreting food-date labels needs to be addressed. For instance, in the U.S. and the U.K., the dates on food packages are manufacturer suggestions for when food is at the best quality, though most people assume the dates reflect the safety of the food. This lack of understanding results in unnecessary waste. In 2011, the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published new guidance measures for manufactures to better differentiate between dates that reflect food safety and food quality for consumers. A report published by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Natural Resources Defense Council investigated these dates and made the following suggestions to reduce waste:

• Dates are not indicators of food safety.
• Smell or taste your food to determine if it is good to eat.
• Educate yourself and inform your friends and family about this misleading system.

Source:hunger-undernutrition.org/blog/food-wasteloss/

Other priority areas include the following:

• Improving inter-agency coordination.
• Aggressive awarenessincluding increasing consumer education and outreach.
• Policy, strategy and programme development

In addition several national and local governments have also taken action. The World Bank is tackling the issue through loans, such as in Argentina, and by coordinated food waste management and the establishment of a cross-sectoral strategy (World Bank 2015).Food and Agricultural Organisation and Messe Düsseldorf welcome partners in the“SAVE FOOD” Initiative with the aim to develop and implement the programme on food loss and waste reduction. The SAVE FOOD initiative aims at encouraging dialogue between industry, research, politics, and civil society on food losses. For this purpose, the initiative will regularly bring together stakeholders involved in the food supply chain for conferences and projects and will support them in developing effective measures. Another goal will be to raise public awareness of the impact of food waste.

Conclusion

Improving coordination among actors along the different stages of the supply chain could address some of the food waste issues globally. Measures to reduce food waste in low-income countries could involve investment in infrastructure and transportation, including in technology for storage and cooling. Small-scale farmers could also be supported by provision of improved financing and credit to allow them to diversify or scale their production. In high-income countries, consumer education for behavior change is key to decreasing food waste. In addition to decreasing food waste along the supply chain, discarded food could also be managed productively for composting and energy recovery (see infographic).

Source: foodsustainability.eiu.com/food-loss-and-waste/?back=%2Fresources%2F

References

Azzuro, Paolo, Silvia Gaiani, and Matteo Vittuari (2016). “Italy–Country Report on National Food Waste Policy.” Fusions EU, Bologna.

http://www.eu-fusions.org/phocadownload/country-report/FUSIONS%20 IT%20Country%20Report%2030.06.pdf.

Chrisafis, A. (2016). “French Law Forbids Food Waste by Supermarkets.” The Guardian, February 4. https://www.theguardian .com /world/2016/feb/04/french-law-forbids-food-waste-by-supermarkets.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) (2018). “SAVE FOOD: Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction.” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.

http://www.fao.org/save-food/news-and-multimedia/news/news -details/en/c/1105834/.

Godfray, H. C., and Garnett, T. (2014). Food security and sustainable intensification. Philosophical                  transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 369(1639),                        20120273. doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0273.

Kaza, S., Yao, L., Bhada-Tata, P., and Van Woerden, F. (2018). What a waste 2.0: a global snapshot             of  solid waste management to 2050. World Bank Publications. Accessed on 18/04/2019 from               http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30317

Lee, Marcus, Farouk B., Renee H., Perinaz B., and Silpa K. (2014). Results-Based Financing for Municipal Solid Waste. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Swedish Gas Centre, Swedish Gas Association, and Swedish Biogas Association (2008). Handbook. Stockholm.

http://www.greengasgrids.eu / fileadmin/greengas/media/Markets/Sweden/BiogasinfoEngGoda Exempel.pdf.

United Nations (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables. Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP/248. Medium Variant Scenario. New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, United Nations.

World Bank(2015). “Eyes Bigger than Belly: A Habit Which Is Harming Latin America.” World Bank, Washington, DC.

http://www.worldban.org/en/news/feature/2015/11/12/food-waste-habit-harming-latin-america.