Should we be focusing on producing more food, or reducing food waste and improving distribution systems in order to address global hunger and food insecurity?
Food loss and waste undermine the sustainability of our food systems. When food is lost or wasted, all the resources that were used to produce this food including water, land, energy, labour and capital go to waste. Most people don't realize how often they waste food and the negative impacts it can have for food security, the environment, and climate change. Reducing food loss and waste could benefit them, their families, and the world, now and in the future. Preventing food waste is the most effective way to shrink its impact on the planet. If we avoid producing food that we don't eat, we can save the land, water, and energy that would have been used to make it. One third of the world's food is wasted. 25% of water used in agriculture is used to grow food that is ultimately wasted – throwing away one burger wastes the same amount of water as a 90 minute shower. Food waste produces eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Giving more people benefits through nutrition assistance programs, increasing benefit amounts, and addressing unemployment may help reduce food insecurity and hunger.But, the effectiveness of global food system is undermined by two key challenges: waste and nutrition. Food wastage is common across all stages of the food chain. Nearly 13.8% of food is lost in supply chains from harvesting to transport to storage to processing. Food Distribution, which involves the transportation, storage and marketing of food to the general population, is an important process that is often undermined. Food distributors have to maintain and ensure food safety, reduce damage of goods and manage timely deliveries, all at the same time.
If I should point to a single aspect, I suggest that foccusing on the reduction of losses and waste is the first resolution to address. In most countries, but majorly in less developed areas we have too much waste of food. Losses are inherent to actual handling (harvest and postharvest) practices and there is a lot to do to minimize the percentages of losses. However, we shall not forget waste. We are wasting too much after harvest because of inadequate packagings to protect the product, temperature abuses (in most small scale distribution/vending cold storage is not in place - even at bigger wholesalers temperature is not correctly used), not trained personnel (consumers need also to be informed on that) to handle with more care (inflicting more mechanical injuries that lead to decay) and inappropriate decay control. Just to mention the ones I considered the most evident problems. Even at the domestic level there is too much waste. My opinion is that we should not invest in the short term on increasing production - we will only be increasing the piles of waste (to be short). Of course, according to FAO, we need to think in increasing production but this is a further discussion.
I agree with Dr Renar Joao Bender that food waste burdens waste management systems, increases food insecurity and is a major contributor to the global problems of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Reducing food lost or wasted means more food for all, less greenhouse gas emissions, less pressure on environment, and increased productivity and economic growth. For millions of people in low-income countries, this food waste happens at harvest time. Poor storage leads to pest infestations or mold that ruin crops before they can be eaten. Along with chronic poverty, conflict and natural disasters, food waste is one of the root causes of hunger worldwide. When food is lost or wasted, all the resources that were used to produce this food - including water, land, energy, labour and capital - go to waste. In addition, the disposal of food loss and waste in landfills, leads to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change. When food is produced but not consumed, this leads to unnecessary CO2-emissions, biodiversity loss and land and water consumption. 25 per cent of the environmental impact of our food system is due to food waste.Food security helps to enhance the productivity and consecutively the production of food. It can assist in providing opportunities for income generation. And, it generally provides improvement of nutritional advice through home economics programmes and enhances the quality of rural life by way of community development. Reducing food waste helps lower our greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions in the food production process, as well as emissions from the decomposition of food waste in landfill. Even without incineration, food waste is harmful to the environment. As it sits in a landfill, rotting away, it emits methane, a greenhouse gas 28-34 times more potent than carbon dioxide and one of the largest contributors to climate change. Resource depletion and climate change pose major challenges to the global food system, but there are opportunities for policy to help address these challenges.
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