66 Given all the resources demanded for food production, it is worth our while to make sure that the food we produce is not wasted. Here’s where your lunch leftovers come in. And it’s not because there isn’t enough food on the planet to feed everyone. Use it. 16 Finally, in recent years, farmers have been forced to leave food in the fields due to labor shortages caused by changing immigration laws. Vitaminbar or getting take-away if you know your fridge contents still have a few days to go. But food waste is a missed opportunity to alleviate the problem. Millions of the tiny creatures are bred in farms on the outskirts of big cities. Wasted food has environmental, economic and social implications. 19 Other studies estimate that 40 to 60 percent of the fish caught by European trawlers in the North Sea are discarded at sea. Why is food waste a problem? Food waste is a massive, multifaceted challenge. 48 In terms of total mass, fresh fruits and vegetables account for the largest losses at the consumer level (19 percent of fruits and 22 percent of vegetables), followed by dairy (20 percent), meat (21 percent) and seafood (31 percent). 42 This is partly due to the fact that portion sizes have increased significantly over the past 30 years, often being two to eight times larger than USDA or Federal Drug Administration (FDA) standard servings. Cockroaches aren’t going to solve the problem with food waste, but they can serve as a very graphic inspiration for finding other similar solutions on a wider scale. On the other hand, it’s one of the few countries with an innovative approach to minimising the environmental impact of food waste. Throwing away … Calculating food waste by country. It’s an efficient and environmentally-friendly alternative to dumping leftover food in a landfill. A lot of waste at this point happens purely because of aesthetics. BFCN (Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition) defines food waste as the waste or food losses that occur during industrial processing, distribution, and consumption. A much better food strategy, for your wallet and the planet alike, would be to buy groceries for shorter periods of time, so even if you don’t end up using all of them as planned, you minimise the waste. Shake Next to tweaking your grocery shopping habits, you can also contribute to offsetting the environmental impact of food waste by switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet. 9, Food production in the US uses 15.7 percent of the total energy budget, 50 percent of all land and 80 percent of all freshwater consumed. There are two main kinds of wasted food: food loss and food waste. Set food loss and waste reduction targets: Setting time-bound targets inspires action by raising awareness, focusing attention, and mobilizing resources. After they die, they’re processed into protein-rich livestock feed or used for cosmetic products and Chinese medicine. Targets at the global, national, sub-national, and business levels will help spur action on reducing food loss and waste. This practice, called dumping, happens when farmers are producing more of a product that people are willing to buy, or when demand for a product falls unexpectedly. This is worth about $162 billion of food. 8, Edible food is discarded at every point along the food chain: on farms and fishing boats, during processing and distribution, in retail stores, in restaurants and at home. On the one hand, it’s the biggest pollutant in the world and hardly an example of environmental protection. In addition to food that’s uneaten in homes and stores, this includes crops left in the field, food that spoils in transportation, and all other food that doesn’t make it to a store. Audio - 5'48" FAO/Giulio Napolitano . It was an initiative led by the World Bank in … Once you’re at the supermarket, stop ignoring products that are approaching their ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date. Food waste in America has skyrocketed in recent years, with 40.7 million tons (81.4 billion pounds) of food waste generated in 2017, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the equivalent of over 180,000 Statue of Liberties.. This is a shocking statistic which unfortunately becomes less surprising the more you learn about the growing problem of food waste … 39. Even if you’ve planned every meal and ingredient down to the last detail, it’s enough for a business dinner to pop up here and a spontaneous social event there, and before you know it all your good intentions have turned into a mouldy smell coming out of your fridge. 40 Approximately 4 to 10 percent of food purchased by restaurants is wasted before reaching the consumer. In Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, the respective amount is under 11 kg per person/year. Of the estimated 125 to 160 billion pounds of food that goes to waste every year, much of it is perfectly edible and nutritious. This meant that the animals, which could no longer be processed, were slaughtered and discarded by the thousand.29, During food transportation and distribution, perishable foods are vulnerable to loss, especially in developing nations where access to adequate and reliable refrigeration, infrastructure and transportation can be a challenge. Next time you go to the supermarket, notice how perfectly shaped the fruits and vegetables are. 37, Currently, only 10 percent of edible wasted food is recovered each year, in the US. Food safety scares and improper refrigeration and handling can also force farmers to throw out otherwise edible food. 43 All-you-can-eat buffets are particularly wasteful, since extra food cannot legally be reused or donated due to health code restrictions. But in contrast to the great appreciation we show for eating food and for photographing it, we don’t seem to have enough respect for it. Food is perfectly safe to eat after the ‘best before’ dateSource:European Commission, just store it correctly and use your common sense – if it looks or smells like you shouldn’t be eating it, you probably shouldn’t. In developing countries, most of the losses at this stage have to do with economic conditions and poor facilities. If you do eat out, take any leftovers home with you. Every time you do your groceries or consider throwing away food that can still be used, you get an opportunity to make those future generations happy. How does it do it? Food gets wasted to a different extent at every step of the supply chain. Of this, 60% is estimated to be avoidable. Especially in developing countries, where the biggest chunk of food is wasted at the production stage, small improvements can make a big difference. And it means that food waste costs every single household about 440 EUR per year. In addition to food that’s uneaten in homes and stores, this includes crops left in the field, food that spoils in transportation, and all other food that doesn’t make it to a store. When you waste food that could have been eaten, you are also wasting the natural and human resources that were used to grow, produce, process and transport that food. At dinner, … Understanding and ending food waste has therefore been a priority among nonprofit organizations and governments which leads us to discussion on the causes, effects, and solutions to food waste . Two generations from now, people are going to look back and wonder how we allowed for food waste to become such a big problem. Similar successes can and have been achievedSource:The New York Times in various regions with weather-protected storage facilities or by making grain silos from a fungus-resistant material. The Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, signed into law in 1996, provides legal liability protection for food donors and recipients and tax benefits for participating businesses. For example, some farmers in Asia and Africa collect tomatoes in big sacks, which means that many of them get squished and spoil before they can be sold or eaten. But food waste is a problem that can be solved. Almost half of our food is wasted in the United States. However, limited data makes it difficult to assess whether this awareness has turned into action and whether or not people are actually wasting less food now than they were before. According to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), food waste has a global carbon footprint of about 8% of all global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. If you’re in denial about your exact contribution to the food waste problem, or you’re just curious, you can use this templateSource:European Week for Waste Reduction to track how much food you actually waste and how it impacts the environment. Right at this moment, cockroaches are doing more to save the environment than you are. 2021 And a recent US study found that 16 to 32 percent of bycatch are thrown away by American commercial fishing boats. That’s about 222.9 million households. 2.3 billion people are joining the planet by 2050 – this will require a 60-70% increase in global food production. December 15, 2020 December 14, 2020 - Produce Blueprints Print Email . During the COVID-19 outbreak, many meat processing facilities closed as workers fell ill, which forced processing plants to close. For a good example of this, let’s focus on China for a second. 13 Food loss occurs on farms for a variety of reasons. 49 Major contributors to household food waste include: There are several macro-level drivers of the food waste problem in the US and globally. Market conditions off the farm can lead farmers to throw out edible food. For example, poor farmers may choose to harvest their crops prematurely for quick cash. US restaurants generate an estimated 22 to 33 billion pounds of food waste each year. If the price of produce on the market is lower than the cost of transportation and labor, sometimes farmers will leave their crops un-harvested. comparable to eliminating all food loss at the retail and consumer level. And, because we can buy more, we can demand more – including more choice variety, which increases the risk that products don’t get sold before their expiry date and go to waste. Wasted food is a growing problem in our modern society and an untapped opportunity. Food waste is also considered to be a global problem because of the number of people who are suffering from starvation in the world. Food loss is the bigger category, and incorporates any edible food that goes uneaten at any stage. While this is not a significant source of food waste in the US; food waste does occur when produce spoils from improper refrigeration. Forum Not only are all of the resources … 35 The USDA estimates that supermarkets lose $15 billion annually in unsold fruit and vegetables alone. These take time and are often out of your hands as a consumer. FAQ 25. And this leads us to where the greatest portion of food waste in the West happens – the consumer and household stage. Although not at the governmental level, similar initiatives at the retail and community level are emerging in other countries across Europe – e.g. 64, Consumer food waste also has serious implications for energy usage. On a large scale, the 30% decrease of greenhouse gas emissions that is associated with this dietary switch is comparable to eliminating all food loss at the retail and consumer levelSource:Faunalytics. In the EU, around 88 million tonnes of food waste are generated annually with associated costs estimated at 143 billion euros (FUSIONS, 2016). Before we get to how, let’s have a look at the current state of food waste. Food waste instead is a term used to refer to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food caused by retailers, food service providers and consumers. Instead, unsold food is now redirected to charities and food banks. It is estimated that between two and five percent of food shipments are rejected by food buyers. Last but not least, food waste also comes at a monetary price. When food is wasted, it also means that resources such as water and land are being abused. 30 A larger problem occurring at this stage is the rejection of perishable food shipments, which are thrown out if another buyer can’t be found quickly. Food waste is a serious problem, but instead of crying over spoiled milk, it’s much better not to let it spoil in the first place. 32 million metric tons end up in landfills which cost local governments $1.52 billion. Blueprints Edition Date: November 2020 . 32, An estimated 43 billion pounds of food were wasted in US retail stores in 2010. Even if you just replace half your beef consumption with plant-based alternatives, you’d still contribute to achieving two-thirds of the environmental benefits of a fully vegan dietSource:The Guardian. Unfortunately, the selection happens before you get to have a say about it. Technology: The food-tech space has been on fire lately. America wastes roughly 40 percent of its food.1 Of the estimated 125 to 160 billion pounds of food that goes to waste every year, much of it is perfectly edible and nutritious. The latest comprehensive EU-wide report on food wasteSource:Fusions EU, from 2012, suggests that the total costs of food waste are about 143 billion euros per year across the EU. Addressing Food Loss and Waste: A Global Problem with Local Solutions Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized. As a result, less is wasted and people who depend on food banks have access to better-quality food than ever before. Food may not be harvested because of damage by weather, pests and disease. Don’t Be a Tosser: How to Recycle Food Waste at Home. A third of the world's food is lost or wasted - to cut carbon emissions from food, we need to cut down on waste. A key one is attitude towards food. In 2019-20, the government purchased 75.17 million tonnes of food grains, out of which only 1930 tonnes were wasted, which is 0.002 per cent of the total … 2. i Acknowledgements This report has been prepared and published thanks to the efforts of many dedicated professionals. Food loss is the bigger category, and incorporates any edible food that goes uneaten at any stage. 60, Another reason why food waste has become such a large problem is that it has not been effectively measured or studied. In addition, food waste is responsible for more than 25 percent of all the freshwater consumption in the US each year, and is among the leading causes of fresh water pollution. In 2016, France became the first country in the worldSource:Reuters to prohibit supermarkets from throwing away food that can still be consumed. However, awareness about this law and trust in the protections it offers remains low. And here’s where you actually have a say. 41 According to the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, on average, diners leave 17 percent of their meals uneaten and 55 percent of edible leftovers are left at the restaurant. The food waste problem has existed ever since technology enabled us to produce more food than we actually need; and like many other environmental issues, it can’t be solved until every one of us gets involved.. Some amount of food is lost at nearly every stage of food production.6 Food waste is a specific piece of food loss, which the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS), defines as food discarded by retailers due to color or appearance and plate waste by consumers.”7 Food waste includes the half-eaten meal left on the plate at a restaurant, food scraps from preparing a meal at home and the sour milk a family pours down the drain. This is largely due to the efforts of organizations like the Ad Council and their Save the Food campaign, and coverage of the topic from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, National Geographic, BBC, Consumer Reports and the more than 3,300 articles written about the issue by major news and business outlets between 2011 and 2016 — a 205 percent increase over that period. A new report from FAO, explains how countries are stepping up to tackle the problem. Get started After all, it’s not like finding a cure for cancer – you don’t need special expertise to contribute to a solution. CockroachesSource:Reuters. In 2017 alone, almost 41 million tons of food waste were … Some amount of food is lost at nearly every stage of food production. When food goes uneaten, not only are these resources already wasted once, but the environmental impact of food continues. And, if you know you’ve just bought food that expires tomorrow, you’ll be more motivated to do something with it. Be sure to prepare before trips to the grocery store, and only buy what you need. As a result, the nutritional and economic value of the food drops and its likelihood to be wasted increases. If you do prefer to shop for a whole week or longer at once, make it a habit to keep track of the expiration dates of products in your fridge. Every morning, household food waste is delivered by the tonnes and fed to the cockroaches. … If it were a country, food waste would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases [PDF] in the world. 27th September 2017 . That’s almost as much as the carbon emissions of the whole EUSource:Wikipedia for 2015. Stop the waste: UN food agencies call for action to reduce global hunger. For every kilo of food … By keeping good food from going to waste, NRDC is helping fight climate change, conserve our natural resources, and build vibrant, resilient communities. Use the products that are about to expire first. Food waste in is a colossal problem in restaurants that will not go away overnight. Food waste also has a significant impact on our environment. But just like cockroaches, you can also be part of the solution. Every year 1.6billion tonnes of food ends up being wasted. Here are a couple of ways food waste can be curbed. My account Starter Box In the USA, organic waste has the second highest wastage rate. https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-2017-report.pdf, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx, https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2015/09/16/usda-and-epa-join-private-sector-charitable-organizations-set, https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=techsoc-articles, https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm, https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=46377, https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/7203/files/ei060014.pdf, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/irrigation-water-use/, https://www.refed.com/downloads/ReFED_Report_2016.pdf, http://www.fao.org/tempref/docrep/fao/008/y5936e/y5936e00.pdf, http://www.ted.com/talks/tristram_stuart_the_global_food_waste_scandal?language=en, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378015300340, http://ucanr.edu/datastoreFiles/234-2202.pdf, https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/43833/43680_eib121.pdf, https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/recommendations-bill-emerson-good-samaritan-act-fs.pdf, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/11/17/364172105/to-end-food-waste-change-needs-to-begin-at-home, https://www.nrdc.org/experts/peter-lehner/tackling-food-waste-home, https://www.fmi.org/forms/store/ProductFormPublic/u-s-grocery-shopper-trends-2015-full-report, http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Technical%20report%20dates.pdf, https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/sustainable-management-food-basics, http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_ALL_FINAL.pdf, http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/New%20estimates%20for%20household%20food%20and%20drink%20waste%20in%20the%20UK%20FINAL%20v2%20(updated%207thAugust2012).pdf, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability-and-resource-productivity/our-insights/resource-revolution, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0007940, Learn what you can do at home to help reduce food waste with our, Try planning meals and shopping in advance, and other tips for. It’s doable, and we all have a role to play. As people living in the West, we have a higher purchasing power, so we can buy more. 65. more of a product that people are willing to buy, or when demand for a product falls unexpectedly. Calculating food waste per capita by country is a more complex process. Less Food Waste Don’t Be a Tosser: How to Recycle Food Waste at Home Before you scrape that plate of leftovers in the bin, read our guide on how to recycle food waste. Supermarket food waste is just one part of the problem, we all need to be involved in a long-term solution. 23 Discarding throws the ocean’s ecosystem off balance by increasing food for scavengers and killing large numbers of target and non-target fish species. 18 Discards are the portion of the catch of fish that are not retained and are often returned dead or dying back into the water. Food waste, a global problem. Some of the main drivers for food loss at retail stores include: overstocked product displays, expectation of cosmetic perfection of fruits, vegetables and other foods, oversized packages, the availability of prepared food until closing, expired “sell by” dates, damaged goods, outdated seasonal items, over purchasing of unpopular foods and under staffing. 3rd place in the list of global polluters, Similar successes can and have been achieved, perfectly safe to eat after the ‘best before’ date. In addition, food that is never eaten accounts for 25% of all fresh water consumption globally. When food goes uneaten, … It’s easier to justify eating outIf you do eat out, take any leftovers home with you. One is the difficulty of turning new consumer awareness into action. Just like tiny pigs, they’re not picky and devour everything quickly. We make enough food to feed all the 7.7 billion and 2 billion more. This led them to the painful decision to plow over edible crops and dump up to 3.7 million gallons of milk per day onto fields rather than go through the additional cost of harvesting and processing products they could not sell. Food production takes a serious toll on the environment Source:World Economic Forum – not only in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, but also by consuming land, water and energy resources. Food Waste: Assessing the problem. Here’s some “food” for thought: The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans discarding nearly 40 million tons of food every year. The first blog post of this four part series about food waste sought to clarify what food waste is. But one-thirdSource:FAO of what we make doesn’t get consumed. In the home food waste is worth £700 per year to the average UK family ($2,275 in the USA), which collectively adds up to £14 billion per year. 17, A recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that eight percent of the fish caught in the world’s marine fisheries is discarded — about 78.3 million tons per year. When food is disposed in a landfill it rots and becomes a significant source of methane - a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. as consumers are less interested in misshaped or blemished items. 1 That’s 80 billion pounds of food and equates to more than $161 billion 2, approximately 219 pounds 3 of waste per person and 30-40 percent 4 of the US food supply. Product Switching the sacks for crates already lowers the amount of food lost. Food waste is a huge problem in developed countries and it is a serious economic and environmental issue. 34 Most of the loss in retail operations is in perishables, including baked goods, produce, meat, seafood and prepared meals. 101112 Yet 20 billion pounds of produce is lost on farms every year. While the FAO global figures from 2011 continue to be cited in many news reports and follow-up studies, the FAO has always made clear that these numbers represent only a broad estimate of the scale of the problem. As long as the ‘use by’ date hasn’t passed, food is safe to eat. Even if the problem seems bigger than what you as an individual can do, there are things you can do to mitigate food waste that can have a big impact. You’re part of the food waste problem. The smart minds in silicon valley and beyond see the food waste problem as a huge opportunity. In developed countries instead most of the food waste happen in people’s … 44 The common practice of keeping buffets fully stocked during business hours (rather than allowing items to run out near closing) creates even more waste. Wasting food has been called the “world’s dumbest environmental problem.” Every year, the average family of four in the U.S. tosses roughly $2,000 in food; 30 to 40 percent of food produced in this country ends up discarded. Food waste does not only mean that valuable and often scarce resources such as water, soil, and energy are being lost, it also contributes to climate change. Wasting food is not only an ethical and economic issue but it also depletes the environment of limited natural resources. You can still minimise the environmental impact of your meals by skipping or cutting down on the most environmentally harmful animal products – like beef and lamb. Around 800 million do not have access to food in the same way as people in developed countries. 22 Tropical shrimp trawling has the highest discard rate and accounts for over 27 percent of total estimated discards. 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 driven to extinction, indigenous populations that have been moved, soil that has been degraded – all to produce food that we then just throw away. Often, rejected food shipments are donated to food rescue organizations, but the quantities are too large to accept. Simple … The population of the EU is about 512.6 million people and the average household consists of 2.3 people. But a meaningful reduction of food waste is definitely in your hands. 45 Approximately 40 to 50 percent of food waste (including 51 to 63 percent of seafood waste 46 happens at level of the consumer. Some of this is recovered and used for other purposes —  in the US, about 33 percent of food waste from manufacturing goes to animal feed. 61, Only five percent of food is composted in the US and as a result, uneaten food is the single largest component of municipal solid waste. There are several factors contributing to this difference. Nutrition Facts, My order At a time when 12 percent of American households are food insecure 4, reducing food waste by just 15 percent could provide enough sustenance to feed more than 25 million people, annually.5, There are two main kinds of wasted food: food loss and food waste. Cart Return policy, Information & contact Kitchen culture and staff behavior such as over-preparation of food, improper ingredient storage and failure to use food scraps and trimmings can also contribute to food loss. can also force farmers to throw out otherwise edible food. 31 Even if these goods make it to market, they are often wasted anyway because of shorter shelf lives. 33 This is particularly disconcerting given that in 2016, 12.3 percent of American households were food insecure. To eliminate food waste completely, improvements are needed at every step of the food supply chain, from production to retail. When crops, food, and produce go to waste, this implies that companies and consumers are spending millions of dollars that could have gone elsewhere. This wasted food has taken loads of fresh water, land and labour to produce. To help you visualise, that’s 95-115 kg of food per person every year. According to the researchers behind the best-selling climate change book Drawdown, in lower income regions, reducing food waste will involve: Once food gets to a retail or food service facility, further losses occur. Not if you’ve ever thrown away leftovers from your plate or bought more food than you could manage to cook in a week. The planet will thank you for it. Food waste is really, really bad for the environment. These cost barriers make it particularly challenging for small and midsize farmers to get these secondary items to processors. In Europe, 53% of food is wasted at the hand of the consumer. And,if food waste were a country, it would take 3rd place in the list of global pollutersSource:Food Waste Recovery, right after China and the US. Gulp. With one-third of food produced for human consumption lost or … It’s not just you and your lunch leftovers. 58, Additionally, in 2015, the USDA and the US Environmental Protection Agency adopted federal targets to cut food waste by 50 percent by 2030. Food production takes a serious toll on the environmentSource:World Economic Forum – not only in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, but also by consuming land, water and energy resources. Drivers of food waste at restaurants include oversized portions, inflexibility of chain store management and extensive menu choices. In a world of 7.7 billion people – the same world where we can create embryos from stem cells and 3D print a human earSource:Princeton University – 1 in 10 people is chronically undernourished. A retail or food service facility, further losses occur the loss in retail operations is perishables! 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