half of the world's food is thrown away

[Johan]

Almost half of the world's food thrown away, report finds

Figures from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers show as much as 2bn tonnes of food never makes it on to a plate



As much as half of all the food produced in the world – equivalent to 2bn tonnes – ends up as waste every year, engineers warned in a report published on Thursday.

The UK's Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) blames the "staggering" new figures in its analysis on unnecessarily strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free and Western consumer demand for cosmetically perfect food, along with "poor engineering and agricultural practices", inadequate infrastructure and poor storage facilities.

In the face of United Nations predictions that there could be about an extra 3 billion people to feed by the end of the century and growing pressure on the resources needed to produce food, including land, water and energy, the IME is calling for urgent action to tackle this waste.

Their report, Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not, found that between 30% and 50% or 1.2-2bn tonnes of food produced around the world never makes it on to a plate.

In the UK as much as 30% of vegetable crops are not harvested due to their failure to meet retailers' exacting standards on physical appearance, it says, while up to half of the food that is bought in Europe and the US is thrown away by consumers.

And about 550bn cubic metres of water is wasted globally in growing crops that never reach the consumer. Carnivorous diets add extra pressure as it takes 20-50 times the amount of water to produce 1 kilogramme of meat than 1kg of vegetables; the demand for water in food production could reach 10–13 trillion cubic metres a year by 2050.

This is 2.5 to 3.5 times greater than the total human use of fresh water today and could lead to more dangerous water shortages around the world, the IME says, claiming that there is the potential to provide 60-100% more food by eliminating losses and waste while at the same time freeing up land, energy and water resources.

Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the IME, said: "The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world's growing population – as well as those in hunger today. It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food."

In order to prevent further waste, governments, development agencies and organisation like the UN "must work together to help change people's mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers," the IME said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/10/half-world-food-waste

 

[assari]

"Overproduction is a hallmark of capitalism"

(assari)

 

[xfire]

Sad thing is, you can't change people's attitudes. My girl throws perfectly good food out all the time. Bitching and complaining doesn't do any good. I wasn't raised that way. When I was a kid, if I had opened a new container of anything before finishing what was left in the old container my, old man would have beat me blind. If you don't learn not to be a wasteful fuck in your formative years, the likelihood of changing that behavior isn't very high.

 

[vodkazvictim]

Sadly true.
On the bright side, it does mean we have a Chance to get our act together before we destroy the world, rather than being up against the wall now.
Of course, we'll squander that Chance in true Capitalistic style, but still...

 

[bobjustbob]

At a warehouse club I worked at they would toss a minimum of 12 rotisserie chickens out every day. Why? They can only sit under the heat lamp for so long. That makes sense. But consider this, while the store is open 9am-10pm there must be chickens ready to buy at all hours. Who wants a chicken at 9 am? Anyone shopping past 7:30 has already eaten and the place dies down to no one. All they would have to do is cut one up for sampling, slap a $2 coupon on them and the last batch would be gone. The staff may even buy them at closing time. The worst is on Black Friday. Sure the place is busy but who wants to eat chicken the day after Thanksgiving? 35+ birds are tossed out every Black Friday.