The failure to keep up with food demand will create a food shortage and a humanitarian crisis not seen before on this scale. The increasing and persistent global demand for food is also driving fertile land useless while contributing to more land degradation and deforestation, which as a result, destroys our precious natural habitats and biodiversity, limiting the services that they provide and disrupting entire ecosystems.īy mid-century, the world population will likely hit 9 billion people, which means global food production must increase by 70% to meet this demand. The volume of food waste globally is enough to feed three billion people, while food waste in Europe could feed 200 million people, in Latin America 300 million people and in Africa 300 million people.įood waste has significant effects on the environment, global and national economies, food security and nutrition. The amount of food loss across the world would make up the size of a country as big as India and Canada combined. If food loss were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind China and the US. Shockingly, about one third of global food supplies are wasted or lost, potentially as much as 40% of food or 2.5 billion tonnes around the world is wasted every year. Food waste can occur anywhere throughout the entire supply chain.
But what exactly is food waste and how much food is wasted in the world? What is Food Waste?įood waste is food that is intended for human consumption that is wasted and lost, and refers not only to food that consumers don’t finish at restaurants and are thrown out at home, but also raw materials and produce that are lost in the farming stage, harvesting processes, during transportation, and storage. That number has notably climbed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN, there are currently more than 800 million people facing hunger and suffering from malnutrition around the globe, equivalent to 11% of the global population. It’s an issue not just prevalent in the rich, developed nations, but occurring in all parts of the world. It’s undeniable that food waste is one of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime. Earth.Org is powered by over 150 contributing writersįood waste is food that is intended for human consumption that is wasted and lost, and can occur anywhere throughout the entire supply chain from farm stage to harvest to households.
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