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SAY NO TO FOOD WASTAGE |
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SAY NO TO FOOD WASTAGE Food waste or food loss as defined by Wikipedia is the food that is discarded or lost or uneaten. According to the United Nations, if the amount of food wasted around the world were reduced by just 25% there would be enough food to feed everyone on the planet. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous, and occur at the stages of production, processing, retailing and consumption. Food wastes are commonly generated in homes, institutions (e.g. boarding schools/schools, prisons, sport camps, religious camps, and industries e.t.c) Food wastes could be regarded as pure streams of waste and they constitute a major burden to the environment such as odour emanation, vermin attraction, toxic gas emission and groundwater contamination. It has high energy content and it seems ideal to achieve dual benefits of energy production and waste stabilization. Each year, 1.3bn tonnes of food, about a third of all that is produced, is wasted, including about 45% of all fruit and vegetables, 35% of fish and seafood, 30% of cereals, 20% of dairy products and 20% of meat. Meanwhile, 795 million people suffer from severe hunger and malnutrition. In 2013, The UNEP?s theme of the World Environment Day was ?Think, Eat, Save, Reduce your Foodprints,? and it says ?each year an estimated one third of all food produced ends up spoiling in the bins of consumers, retailers, farmers and transporters. Together, these spoilt food total 1.3 billion tonnes and worth an estimated $1 trillion every year.? According to available statistics, over 1.2 billion people go to bed hungry everyday and another half of that figure die of starvation and malnutrition globally. In a developing nation like Nigeria, Food wastage occurs on a daily basis in different forms and dimensions, while several thousands of Nigerians go to bed hungry in the midst of plenty. The food wastage situation could be categorized into two namely wastage of raw or unprocessed foodstuff and wastage of cooked or processed food. Food loss manifest sadly from the production, storage, processing and distribution stages in the food value chain. The south West, South East and South South people of Nigeria are fond of all manners of social events: marriages, birthdays, house warming ceremonies, coronation ceremonies, child naming and dedication events and are noted for cooking large amount of different varieties of food, and in most cases, are often wasted. This also amounts to huge food loss almost throughout the year. Conclusively, the ripple effect of food wastage amounts to wastage of precious life resources like time, money, water, land and energy spent in producing the food. All hands should be on deck to reduce wastage of food to the barest minimum, to ensure food security and Sustainability. References: http://climatechange.gov.ng/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/global-food-wastage-hits-1trn-annually-unep/ http://dailyindependentnig.com/ http://www.thinkeatsave.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=167 |
 
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9 Comments
Likewise in Tanzania, food waste i still a serious issue and the loss occurs during the time of harvesting, post - harvest (processing to the markets) and consumption time. the damage is caused due to poor packing and pests. Well written report.
Posted 15-02-2016 15:45
Social events do contribute to a significant food wastage. For example in Bangladesh, a wedding has around 3 to 4 events, where uneaten food is a very common sight. So for every marriage, lots and lots of food is ultimately wasted. If only there were an effective platform or channel to send the uneaten food, effectively and effectively, to the slums or other poor areas.
Posted 10-02-2016 22:00
Thank you for your report. Food wastage should be stopped within families first. If every family does not waste food, this would solve a lot of problems, but supermarkets and convenient stores should also think about food wastage as at the end of the day, if their food are not bought, they will be thrown away. Hopefully there will be a solution to this in my region soon because, like Nigeria, lots of people here in Indonesia goes to sleep with an empty stomach.
Posted 10-02-2016 14:19
Thank you Olamide for this great report. I agree with Arushi that food wastage is a social crime which should be drastically reduced. Just like you mentioned in the report, a lot of it happen in Nigeria and it is obviously going to be a tough task getting Nigerians to understand its effects. Let's join hands in stopping this.
Posted 10-02-2016 13:27
Especially on ceremonies, food wastage are plenty..if people are responsible enough to serve that much they can eat then remaining unused foods can be collected to give it those who are hungry. Controlling food wastage can help to control famine which is the deadliest problem in the world. Thanks for sharing the info!!
Posted 10-02-2016 01:58
Food waste is a social crime. It needs to be stopped at each level in the chain from stocking at supermarkets/retailers to buying by consumers to cooking by families to consumption. We tend to get carried away with tempting offers on food items and ultimately after buying , many a times we end up wasting them. Also in social gatherings , parties etc , to avoid embarrassment of shortage of food , hosts arrange lot of food which gets wasted at the end of the day. To stop this crime of food wastage , we should be mindful and have to change our attitude as well. Thanks for the great report.
Posted 09-02-2016 18:17
Every year thousands of people died due to scarcity of foods.. some people die due to overdose of food.. so even a single seed can save the life of people.. so we all hope that this site could organize such type of program to reduce this global problems..
Posted 09-02-2016 16:10
Dear Olamide, Food waste has been a global problem and situation is more or less similar everywhere. From harvesting to consumption food waste have chances in every point. As an individual we can contribute by not wasting food during consumption.
Thank you for posting dear Olamide.
Posted 09-02-2016 13:41
Nice one Olamide. Food wastage is one of the many societal problems that gives me headache. I have written so many essays in the past about that but none of them saw the light of day. I hope this platform will help me get bold enough to publish some of the essays.
Posted 09-02-2016 07:41