Nearly forty years ago, at the First World Food Summit in 1974, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger stated that “no child will go to bed hungry within ten years”. Tonight, one out of seven people will go to sleep with an empty stomach at a time where per capita food production is at a historical high. There are great imbalances in the global food system. There is more than enough grown to feed all seven billion of the world’s inhabitants well. Still, nearly one billion people of today suffer from hunger and malnourishment while another billion is overeating.
The best scientific analysis done to date estimates that at least one-third of all food that is grown goes to waste. FAO places a conservative estimate that 1.3 billion tons of food goes uneaten every year. That is food that we invested our water, land, financial and energy resources in to produce, all of which goes down the drain. Reducing losses in the food supply chain has the potential to save water and production costs, and increase profitability for farmers and companies.
Losses accumulate during the harvesting, threshing, transport, distribution, processing and storage of food before it reaches the consumer. Investments in improved harvesting, storage, transport and cooling infrastructure can reduce losses significantly.
In more advanced economies, less is lost in the field but more is discarded into the trash bin. In the United States, 40 per cent of food purchased is thrown away either in the market or by the consumer. That is billions of dollars and trillions of litres of water sent down the drain each year.
How can we cut away losses in the global food supply chain – from field to fork?
Angles to take:
- What is the role of trade? In regions where access to water and other natural resources limits food production, can increased import of food be the solution?
- Can concepts such as “virtual water trade” and “water footprints” help address the challenges in the global food system?
- How can consumers waste less, and how do we avoid losses in transport and processing? What is the food industry doing to reduce losses and waste? What are governments doing?