Hundred millions of tons of food in the EU each year end up as waste. If things stay as they are, until 2020, the quantity is calculated to rise to 120 million tons.
This waste of food means an extra weight in family budget, and has a significant environmental impact on the resources required for the production and consumption of these foods (transport, maintenance, cooking, etc.) and ultimately against the EU's policy to foster sustainable growth.
Indicatively, for the production of 1 kg of beef meat, 15.000 lt of water are required, while 500-4.000 lt are required for the production of 1 kg of wheat. These estimates show that around 50% of irrigation water is used for food that will end up as waste.
The EU and its Member States have committed themselves to comply with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),which was adopted by the UN last September (2015). http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/. According to SDG, EU members aim to reach a decrease of food waste to half today's quantity during retail, as well as consumption.
Everyone plays a role in creating food waste: the producers, manufacturers, the hospitality sector, the retail, and, of course, consumers. Such examples are super markets whose policy is not to accept fruits and vegetables different from a specific weight and shape. Because nature does not follow the rules of retail, this leads to 35% of production remaining unsold, because of not meeting the specifications. However, the Super market TESCO in the UK decided to also provide "misshapen" fruits and vegetables on special offer instead of wasting them. However, it is essential that the public is "educated" enough to perceive it as quality food. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/tsco/10508798/Tesco-ugly-and-misshapen-fruit-and-veg-will-go-on-special-offer.html
The EU has adopted a plan for the new Circula Economy Package, to use resources in a more sustainable way. This means enriching of production with more recycling and reuse, which will benefit the economy and the environment, from the optimal use of raw materials, the decrease in energy needed, and the decrease in GHG emission http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/index_en.htm, aiming to disseminate information on food waste has created a place for exchange of good practices against food waste. http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/food_waste/good_practices/index_en.htm It has also prepared communication materials, such as "What can I do in my daily life to limit food waste?" http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/food_waste/library/docs/tips_stop_food_waste_en.pdf and videos, such as "Stop food waste"http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_food-safety/information_sources/videos_en.htm).
A study by Harokopio University, Athens, Greece, calculated that 5.609.200 tons of CO2 are emitted every year in Greece, as a result of food that ends up as waste.http://uest.ntua.gr/adapttoclimate/proceedings/full_paper/Abeliotis_et_al.pdf
In Greece there are many NGOs have acted to reduce food waste. NGO "Boroume" has given special importance to the organizing and distribution of surplus food for charity throughout Greece. WWF Greece has created the program "Better Life" to inform people for the impact of food wastage, both on the environment and the household budget.
I believe that the most important way of reducing food waste, is through the adoption of a more sustainable less consumerist culture, using less natural resources and focusing on our real needs, with respect to the environment for what it provides us, following the 3R principle.
7 Comments
Thank you for your valuable comments!
Arushi and Shirley, it is indeed very sad to see such pictures depicting food waste.
Joshua and Fentale, I am actually surprised to hear that there is such food waste in developing countries because of harvest and transportation difficulties! We should seriously engineer solutions to this problem.
Choirul, you are very right that we should exploit wasted food, but even this way the resources spent are too valuable. We need to both minimize food waste and make sure to exploit what's left. Actually, the latter will also help combat climate change, as a significant portion of GHG's is methane from decomposed organic waste.
Posted 06-02-2016 07:18
Food waste is quiet minimal in advanced countries. I am sure it will surprise most of you the amount of food wasted in low income countries, especially in Africa. Post harvest loses, being one of the creates factor and inability to transport harvest from farming communities to urban centers. We need to take issues of food waste very serious as individuals and at the societal level
Posted 05-02-2016 03:58
That's right.. recycling food waste is an effective idea in solving the problem.. as we know that waste from food or plant can be utilized as alternative energy such as bio gas. bio gas is one of the best process in recycling waste to be a valuable new product. As an alternative energy, bio gas is more environmentally friendly to the environment than another gas energy such as liquid petroleum gas.. food waste also can be used as livestock feed after fermentation process and also can be a compost manure as a substitution of chemical fertilizer.. nice article :)
Posted 04-02-2016 22:41
It's so sad to see these kind of things happening.
Posted 04-02-2016 21:29
I think we really need to change out attitude and use resources judicious..Food is a valuable resource and the consumers must realise the fact that they should buy as much as they need..This not just helps us to control the production but also reduce inflation.
Posted 04-02-2016 19:53
in developing country there is high loss of food ( post harvest loss because many reasons) whereas in high income country the leftover is high.in all cases the waste is waste wen have say no for food wastes.
Posted 04-02-2016 15:46
It is so painful to see the pictures depicting food wastage. It hurts as there are so many people sleeping hungry. Food wastage , undoubtedly, is a wastage of resources used up in producing that food. You are right the best approach is change in attitude and adoption of a more sustainable less consumerist culture.
NGOs like 'Boroume' in Greece are doing a good job by circulating surplus food .
Thanks for a well written report.
Posted 04-02-2016 12:48