SPEECH wastage of food and water
Answers
Globally, human beings produce enough food waste to feed 3 billion people: over 30% of the world's food supply is wasted. The annual food waste in Italy could feed 44 million people – all of Ethiopia's undernourished population. The annual food waste in France is enough to feed the entire population of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Just five per cent of United States' food waste could feed 4 million people for one day.
In 2011, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon noted that there is enough food in the world, yet millions are still starving – and unless we take action, it will devastate our planet.
"Everybody is waiting for somebody else to take action."
Who could possibly disagree: food waste is a global shame, especially in a world in which over a billion people are starving. And yet: everybody is waiting for somebody else to take action.
Can we send our leftovers to starving children in Africa? No, that is clearly not a permanent or sustainable solution. The problem in Africa is food loss. The amount of food lost per year in sub-Saharan Africa could feed 48 million people. Due to poor harvesting facilities, storage, packaging, distribution and the lack of a stable infrastructure, good food is lost in the fields before it even has a chance to reach peoples' bellies.
Food loss and food waste
In the West we waste approximately 40% of our food. This 40% happens at the end of the food value chain – by retailers and consumers. The same percentage of food, 40%, is lost in developing countries, though here the food losses happen at the beginning of the value chain. If we look at global food wasters, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), we find that Western populations, such as EU member states, top the list. Here approximately 179 kg is wasted per capita per year. In developing countries, only 6-11 kg is wasted per capita per year.
"But how does the food we waste in our homes in the Western world actually affect developing countries and hungry children in Africa?"
This global imbalance must be corrected. But how does the food we waste in our homes in the Western world actually affect developing countries and hungry children in Africa? Does it actually matter?
Indirectly, it does.
I participated in a panel debate during the People's Meeting (Folkemødet) in Bornholm at which the Secretary-General of the Danish Red Cross, Anders Ladekarl, said the following:
"The Western world's overconsumption of food is affecting global food prices: The more we in the West consume (and the more we throw out), the greater global demand for food becomes – and the higher food prices rise globally."
Let's imagine a pile of bananas, grown and produced in a developing country, transported all the way across the globe to a Western country just to be wasted because of some silly cosmetic reason. People in the very same developing country lack food. Imagine looking those hungry people in the eyes and telling them that the good bananas grown in their very own country are being thrown away just as fast they arrive in the Western world.
"Imagine looking those hungry people in the eyes and telling them that the good bananas
grown in their very own country are being thrown away just as fast they arrive in the Western world."
Food is the new gold
At my most recent panel debate at the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition 4th Annual Forum on Food and Nutrition, I addressed the food challenges of future generations. One of the speakers at the Forum, globally respected author and founder of the Worldwatch Institute, Lester R. Brown, mentioned that food was the new oil. I would say, however, that food is the new gold.
Why? Because fighting food scarcity will be one of the central geopolitical issues of the future.
Stop wasting food.