Most people do not aware that we will be running out of food, fresh water, fuel and mineral resource in the coming generation. As human population continues to grow, which exceeded 7 billion in the world currently, more forest and agriculture as well as farming land are cleared in order to build more houses, commercial buildings and factories due to the demand of rising population. As such, fresh water becomes scare and polluted since all kinds of garbage like, household, sewerage and toxic chemical disposal from construction sites, factories, buildings and houses are dumped into river. To learn more about World Without Water, please watch the documentary produced by Vanguard
Food waste is a world wide phenomenon in many developed countries. It has become a huge crisis for every developed nation as the government is looking at alternative solution to dispose the huge amount of food wastage into landfills every day. As humans become affluent, we turn ourselves into greedy shoppers who are attracted to buying promotional food in a big quantities, knowing that some food will be thrown away when the food can't be finished consuming, before the expiry date. There are many consumers who concern more on "cosmetic" selection while shopping for food in the supermarkets. Thus, at least 30-50 percent of edible food which doesn't meet the quality and "cosmetic" criteria in terms of colour, size, shape and appearance will be thrown away from homes, supermarkets and food operators. Apart from that, many of food eaters tend to order a lot of food until it's over our limit of food consumption. As such most of leftover food is ended throwing away into the bins. According to the study by the London based Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the world produces about four billion metric tons of food a year but 1.2 to 2 billion metric tons is not eaten which is a tragic of wastage which needs to be curb in order to meet our future food demands. The United Nations predicts global population will peak at 9.5 billion people by 2075 which means, there will be additional 2.5 billion people to feed.
In order to save our future generation from going hunger without food resources, we should educate our children and ourselves to appreciate and reduce food wastage. We also learn to become less picky while shopping for fresh food in supermarkets without emphasizing too much on "cosmetic" criteria. Do always REMEMBER this Motto:
Food operators and supermarkets should also participate actively in distributing the food to poor people and charity homes in order to curb the problem of food wastage.
" CUTTING YOUR FOOD WASTE => HELPS SAVING MORE MONEY "
Food operators and supermarkets should also participate actively in distributing the food to poor people and charity homes in order to curb the problem of food wastage.
There is a worldwide active Environmentalist Organisation known as, Friends of the Earth which is jointly by 74 developing countries, to focus and emphasize on the restoration and improvement of the environmental projects, including the crisis of pollution on the Earth. Friends of the Earth, Hong Kong is an example of activist which is involved actively to educate the people in Hong Kong in reducing the food waste from ending up in the landfills, through the education campaign of "Waste No Food." Hong Kong is famous for its food paradise but it is also reported that the city is collecting at least 3,500 tonnes of rubbish each day, where at least up to 40% of the unwanted food is ended up in the landfills every day.
World Food Demand To Outpace Supply In Coming Decades, UN Claims
* World not seen coping with demands of rising population
* "New political economy" needed
LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday.
As the world's population looks set to grow to nearly 9 billion by 2040 from 7 billion now, and the number of middle-class consumers increases by 3 billion over the next 20 years, the demand for resources will rise exponentially.
Even by 2030, the world will need at least 50 percent more food, 45 percent more energy and 30 percent more water, according to U.N. estimates, at a time when a changing environment is creating new limits to supply.
And if the world fails to tackle these problems, it risks condemning up to 3 billion people into poverty, the report said.
Efforts towards sustainable development are neither fast enough nor deep enough, as well as suffering from a lack of political will, the United Nations' high-level panel on global sustainability said.
"The current global development model is unsustainable. To achieve sustainability, a transformation of the global economy is required," the report said.
"Tinkering on the margins will not do the job. The current global economic crisis ... offers an opportunity for significant reforms."
Although the number of people living in absolute poverty has been reduced to 27 percent of world population from 46 percent in 1990 and the global economy has grown 75 percent since 1992, improved lifestyles and changing consumer habits have put natural resources under increasing strain.
There are 20 million more undernourished people now than in 2000; 5.2 million hectares of forest are lost per year - an area the size of Costa Rica; 85 percent of all fish stocks are over-exploited or depleted; and carbon dioxide emissions have risen 38 percent between 1990 and 2009, which heightens the risk of sea level rise and more extreme weather.
The panel, which made 56 recommendations for sustainable development to be included in economic policy as quickly as possible, said a "new political economy" was needed.
"Let's use the upcoming Rio+20 summit to kick off this global transition towards a sustainable growth model for the 21st century that the world so badly needs," EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in response to the report, referring to a U.N. sustainable development summit this June in Brazil.
ACTION
Among the panel's recommendations, it urged governments to agree on a set of sustainable development goals which would complement the eight Millennium Development Goals to 2015 and create a framework for action after 2015.
They should work with international organisations to create an "evergreen revolution", which would at least double productivity while reducing resource use and avoiding further biodiversity losses, the report said.
Water and marine ecosystems should be managed more efficiently and there should be universal access to affordable sustainable energy by 2030.
To make the economy more sustainable, carbon and natural resource pricing should be established through taxation, regulation or emissions trading schemes by 2020 and fossil fuel subsidies should also be phased out by that time.
National fiscal and credit systems should be reformed to provide long-term incentives for sustainable practices as well as disincentives for unsustainable ones.
Sovereign wealth and public pension funds, as well as development banks and export credit agencies should apply sustainable development criteria to their investment decisions, and governments or stock market watchdogs should revise regulations to encourage their use.
Governments and scientists should also strengthen the relationship between policy and science by regularly examining the science behind environmental thresholds or "tipping points" and the United Nations should consider naming a chief scientific adviser or board to advise the organisation, the report said.
(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/world-food-demand-population-growth_n_1241435.html?comm_ref=false)
Tristram Stuart: The global food waste scandal
Filmed May 2012 • Posted Sep 2012 • TEDSalon London Spring 2012
Source: TED Ideas worth spreading
Western
countries throw out nearly half of their food, not because it’s inedible
-- but because it doesn’t look appealing. Tristram Stuart delves into
the shocking data of wasted food, calling for a more responsible use of
global resources.
Tristram Stuart sounds the warning bell on global food waste,
calling for us to change the systems whereby large quantities of produce
and other foods end up in trash heaps.(Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/tristram_stuart_the_global_food_waste_scandal.html)
Half Of All Food Produced Is Thrown Away
Published on Jan 10, 2013
Source: AC World of News (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glXJ0rRt-bc)
Source: AC World of News (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glXJ0rRt-bc)
As much as half of all the food produced in the world - two billion tonnes worth - ends up being thrown away, a new report claims.
The waste is caused by poor infrastructure and storage facilities, over-strict sell-by dates, "get-one-free" offers, and consumer fussiness, according to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Each year countries around the world produce some four billion tonnes of food.
But between 30% and 50% of this total, amounting to 1.2 to 2 billion tonnes, never gets eaten, says the report Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not.
In the UK, up to 30% of vegetable crops are not harvested because their physical appearance fails to meet the exacting demands of consumers.
Half the food purchased in Europe and the US is thrown away after it is bought, the report adds.
Vast quantities of water are also wasted in global food production, it is claimed.
Around 550 billion cubic metres of water is used to grow crops that never reach the consumer, according to the report.
Producing one kilogram of meat is also said to take 20 to 50 times more water than producing the same weight of vegetables.
The demand for water in food production could reach 10 to 13 trillion cubic metres a year by 2050, the institution said.
This is up to 3.5 times greater than the total amount of fresh water used by humans today, raising the spectre of dangerous water shortages.
Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 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."
He blamed the situation on poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure, and supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers.
By 2075 the United Nations predicts that the world's population will reach around 9.5 billion, resulting in an extra three billion mouths to feed.
Added stresses on the ability of the world to feed itself include global warming and the growing popularity of meat, which requires around 10 times more resources than staple plant foods such as rice or potatoes.
Dr Fox called on governments, development agencies and organisations like the UN to "work together to help change people's mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers".
The waste is caused by poor infrastructure and storage facilities, over-strict sell-by dates, "get-one-free" offers, and consumer fussiness, according to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Each year countries around the world produce some four billion tonnes of food.
But between 30% and 50% of this total, amounting to 1.2 to 2 billion tonnes, never gets eaten, says the report Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not.
In the UK, up to 30% of vegetable crops are not harvested because their physical appearance fails to meet the exacting demands of consumers.
Half the food purchased in Europe and the US is thrown away after it is bought, the report adds.
Vast quantities of water are also wasted in global food production, it is claimed.
Around 550 billion cubic metres of water is used to grow crops that never reach the consumer, according to the report.
Producing one kilogram of meat is also said to take 20 to 50 times more water than producing the same weight of vegetables.
The demand for water in food production could reach 10 to 13 trillion cubic metres a year by 2050, the institution said.
This is up to 3.5 times greater than the total amount of fresh water used by humans today, raising the spectre of dangerous water shortages.
Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 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."
He blamed the situation on poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure, and supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers.
By 2075 the United Nations predicts that the world's population will reach around 9.5 billion, resulting in an extra three billion mouths to feed.
Added stresses on the ability of the world to feed itself include global warming and the growing popularity of meat, which requires around 10 times more resources than staple plant foods such as rice or potatoes.
Dr Fox called on governments, development agencies and organisations like the UN to "work together to help change people's mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers".
IN THE UK AND OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE:
EU supermarkets blamed for Kenya food waste |
More than 15 percent of food grown in Kenya is discarded due to the "cosmetic standards" of supermarkets in Europe.
|
| Nairobi, Kenya - On a farm a few hundred kilometres from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, Samson Kibaki* is engaging in a strange ritual: chopping large chunks off his green beans. Every green bean grown on his farm is cut down by around a third before it goes to market, and the remainder tossed on a heap. The reason? Beans are bendy and the cellophane packets in UK supermarkets are short and straight. In a country where 3 million people are dependent on food aid, he wastes 40 tonnes of edible green beans, broccoli, sugar snaps, and runner beans every week, primarily because they are the wrong size, shape or colour. This is enough to provide meals for over 250,000 people, and equates to 40 percent of his entire crop. Kibaki is supplying one well-known British retailer, but campaigner Tristram Stuart, who spent the past week visiting Kenyan farmers in the run up to a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) dinner to highlight the problem of food waste, says he knows of many others in similar situations. “The unfair and unnecessary practices of European supermarkets are forcing Kenyan farmers to waste colossal amounts of food while millions of people go hungry,” he told Al Jazeera in Nairobi. “Sometimes whole consignments are rejected because they contain produce with slight cosmetic defects.” He refuses to name individual supermarkets for fear that farmers will face repercussions. Stuart, who founded the British food waste campaign group Feeding the 5,000, also visited several packhouses in Nairobi, where farmers’ produce is sorted and bagged. “I saw huge skips and crates full of rejected whole beans, half beans, baby corn and mange tout lying out in the sun, all of which without exception I’d be ready to eat,” he said. “If I’d have grown them in my garden I would have been proud.” 'Left to rot' At a minimum, 10-15 percent of farmers’ produce will be rejected, says Stephen Mbithi Mwikya, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya. “But if water is stressed your produce will be smaller and less uniform, and you will lose more.” Growers do what they can to find local markets for rejected vegetables, but this is often not possible. “Not everyone here in Kenya eats baby corn and the market is not big enough to soak up the good food they’re producing,” Stuart says. Some is donated to charities, the rest is fed to animals, composted or left to rot.
“In a country where so many go hungry, I can’t see why you would specify that food cannot be fed to people,” says Stuart. “To me this seems pernicious.” According to the Kenyan government, 30 percent of Kenyan children are undernourished and 10 million people suffer from food shortages and poor nutrition. Wasted food also represents a major loss of water, energy, fertilisers and land. But cosmetic standards are not the only supermarket practice that Kenyan farmers resent. The retailers are also “notorious” for cancelling forecast orders, says Stuart, sometimes when produce has already been grown, harvested and packed - without paying any costs to farmers. As the retailers don’t pay for this waste, they have little incentive to reduce it. 'Moral hazard' This has not gone entirely unnoticed by UK authorities, and the practice may soon come under scrutiny from a new UK body: the UK Grocery Code Adjudicator, a policing outfit borne out of work done by the UK’s Competition Commission. In 2008 a report by the commission found that “large grocery retailers were transferring excessive risks and unexpected costs to suppliers, by exercising their buyer power”. It cites last-minute changes to the “quantity and specifications” of orders as a potential “moral hazard”. “If we get a call from a buyer in London saying ‘sorry, we can’t take your order tomorrow’, it has a terrible effect on farmers and exporters,” says Mwikya. “You can’t store fresh produce; if we can’t sell it in a day it will be lost.” Losses hit small farmers - who make up the majority of growers for the European market - particularly hard. Earlier this week Stuart gave diplomats and ministers from around the world the opportunity to get a taste of what farmers are discarding. As part of the global Think.Eat.Save campaign, Feeding the 5000 sourced 1.6 tonnes of food from Kenyan farms that would otherwise have been wasted, and served it to dignitaries attending UNEP’s Governing Council and Global Ministerial Forum in Nairobi. As the sun set on the UNEP lawn, guests were presented with "ugly crudités" at a drinks reception, followed by a three-course meal including yellow lentil dal with tamarind, warm broccoli salad, and mango tiramisu, while being entertained by Kenyan pop singer Eric Wainaina. Ali Mohamed, Permanent Secretary at the Kenyan Environment Ministry, told Al Jazeera the dinner “was wonderful” and that the waste of food due to strict criteria on size, shape and weight was “very, very unfortunate”. “We are benefitting a lot from the European markets, but that said there is some disparity in terms of trade fairness when food is subjected to such stringent conditions by other markets, namely the EU,” he said. “Food and food accessibility is really an important issue for countries like Kenya, where every year at least 3 million people receive food aid.” 'Cosmetic standards' However, not everyone agrees that big supermarkets are to blame. Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, says it’s “completely wrong” to point the finger at retailers, arguing that until recently they had to conform to strict EU standards for fruit and vegetables. “It was UK supermarkets that campaigned against these restrictions and were successful in getting many of them lifted four years ago,” he says. He adds that the market in "wonky" vegetables has “grown rapidly over the last few years” in the UK, particularly in value ranges. “In the current difficult economic times, and with rising food prices, these products have been highly successful.” Supermarkets also say they are working to help growers. A spokesperson for Sainsburys said that in the last year it had “held round-table sessions with 50 suppliers in Kenya and South Africa to discuss aspects of quality management including waste”. Tesco said it had been “including fresh produce of different sizes and shapes in our Everyday Value range for years”. The problem of food waste is not confined to Kenya. Globally, one-third of all food produced - 1.3 billion tonnes - is wasted every year, and Stuart argues that consumers have an important role in tackling this. “We can change this absurd process,” he says. “It’s up to all consumers to tell their food businesses that they’d rather see ugly produce on the shelves than see Kenyan growers out of pocket - and food - because of unnecessary cosmetic standards.” *Name has been changed to protect the farmer’s anonymity. | |
Source:
Al Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/02/2013222152652620999.html)
|
UK Study shows up to Half of All Food is Wasted
Published on January 10, 2013 Source: Euronews.com via youtube
Developed countries are leading the way when it comes to food wastage, according to a UK report.
The study carried out by the London-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers claims up to half of all the food produced worldwide is not eaten for reasons including poor harvesting, transport and storage.
Consumer behaviour is particularly to blame in the West, with 'best before' and 'use by' dates confusing customers and leading to up to 50 percent of what is bought in the supermarket ending up in the bin.
"The problem of food waste is dominant in industrialised countries because in developing countries there is generally a much higher level of poverty, people simply can't afford to waste any food," said Robert Van Otterdijk, an Agro-Industry Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
In developing countries, problems with harvesting and storage still lead to food to being thrown away.
The world produces about four billion metric tonnes of food each year, but 1.2 to 2 billion tonnes are not eaten, according to the study.
SUPERMARKET LANDFILLS
Inside Out investigates. Published: March 2005 Source: BBC News It is estimated that people in Britain spend about £70 on their weekly food shop, coming home with a trolley full of treats. But behind the supermarket shelves is the story the food industry doesn't want you to know about. Seventeen million tonnes of food is being ploughed into Britain's landfill sites every year - all because it's cheaper and easier for the food industry to dump it than give it to those in need. It's a massive waste when you consider that around four million tonnes of this food is perfectly alright to eat - fresh, tasty, and well within its sell-by-date. The wastage is even worse when you consider its worth - if sold in shops, this dumped food would cost around £18 billion. The food industry calls this a 'surplus' - but when you consider that around four million Brits can't afford to buy healthy food, it's a shocking waste. And according to some campaigners, it's not just shocking - it's completely immoral. Food down the drain
It's not hard to see how it happens - just take a look at your weekly shop. The fruit and veg section in any supermarket is a good place to start - after all, would you buy a bruised apple when a firmer, shinier alternative was available? There's nothing wrong with the bruised fruit, but that doesn't mean someone else will buy it. Even if there's not a bruise in sight, some fruit is even being binned simply because it's the wrong shape. Take the new EU regulations on bananas, for example. By stipulating that EU-produced bananas should be straight rather than curved, the food industry is all bent out of shape. Between bruised apples and bent bananas, there's literally a mountain of waste building up in landfill sites across the country. It's a sensitive issue - so sensitive, in fact, that the landfill site and the company that runs it refused to be identified. But one company who wants to make itself known is Fareshare - the national charity that redistributes excess supplies from the food industry to the homeless and vulnerable. The charity supplied over two and a half million meals for around 12,000 people in 2004 alone - that's 1,800 tonnes of food which would otherwise have gone to waste. But it's still only a fraction of the surplus food available to the needy - the rest is still destined to end up on the landfill site. Fareshare representative Cath Elliot tells us, "There's nothing wrong with it - these are all in date…mushrooms, cabbages, spring greens…customers want perfection… "It is literally what is surplus to the supermarkets requirements. "It goes into depots, supermarkets order from depots, what's left, if we didn't take it, it would just go to landfill." Fareshare has eight schemes running at different locations nationwide, and here at their Barnsley warehouse the shelves are piled high with surplus food ready to be distributed to those who need it. Their daily delivery of surplus food donated by some of the big supermarkets and food manufacturers includes all kinds of delicious wares - like ready meals, organic meats and vegetables, and even cakes and desserts. Everything Fareshare distributes is in perfect condition, and thanks to co-operation from some of the UK's major supermarket chains, it won't go to waste. But not everyone wants to take part in the scheme. 'The Big Five'
He says, "We currently work with Sainsbury's, M&S, Tesco, and we're in talks with Asda. "Only Safeway/Morrisons say they can't work with us at this moment in time. "It's still a cheap disposal method, and it's the way things have always been done, there are new ways of handling this food - and we're one of them." Inside Out tried to find how much each supermarket was dumping every year, but few were upfront about the total figures. Tesco and Sainsbury's publish their landfill statistics on the web for all to see - 131,000 and 91,000 tonnes landfilled each year respectively. Sainsbury's were also quick to point out that they give food to around 400 charities, including Fareshare, but M & S and other supermarkets were less forthcoming. Sainsbury's representative Martin Bowden agreed to talk to us about it. He says of the figures, "It's comparable and in proportion - availability is everything otherwise our competitors would go elsewhere. "Don't think the public out there are naïve. We all waste. "But at least we're up front about it, because it's an industry problem, it's not a single supermarket problem." The West Yorkshire-based supermarket giants had some interesting answers when asked about their food wastage. We asked Morrisons how much food they throw away. They wouldn’t tell us, but said they aim to have no surpluses. And Asda initially told us they only landfilled damaged or broken goods, but later acknowledged that they do waste surplus food, although they say they try to keep it to a minimum. Inside Out spotted an Asda waste truck pulling into a depot at Normanton, which we followed to a nearby landfill site where it dumped its load. It's dumping on sites like this that has angered campaigners, Paul Dainton in particular. Paul has been campaigning against the Welbeck landfill site near Wakefield for years. It's one of the biggest in the country - with an even bigger smell! Paul says, "It's two miles long, almost a mile wide, and 65 metres high. "Lorries come to tip every couple of minutes…every sort of food gets dumped here without a shadow of a doubt. "There are times you see stuff here, and you think why on earth has this been thrown away when it's quite obvious it's edible. It's immoral." It is estimated that four million people in the UK cannot afford a healthy diet, with one in seven people over the age of 65 at serious risk of malnourishment. Seventeen million tonnes of surplus food are dumped on landfills every year. Four million tonnes of this is estimated to be perfectly edible. The estimated retail value of food dumped by supermarkets is over £18 billion annually. The government has made a commitment to reduce the volume of biodegradable waste, including food, from going to landfill by 60% by 2016. |  | ||||||
(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series7/supermarket_landfills.shtml
In the USA:
Grocery Stores Cutting Food Waste
Published on February 14, 2013 Source: kxan News via youtube
Reducing Meal Waste in Schools: A Healthy Solution
Published on Jan 23, 2013
Source: Harvard School of Public Health via youtube
How can schools provide healthy meals that kids will eat? HSPH research fellow Juliana Cohen talks about efforts to help schools reduce costly food waste by preparing meals that are both nutritious and tasty.
ENVIRONMENT: Automatic Food Waste Digester Reduces Landfill Dumping
Published on Feb 22, 2013 Source: PE via youtube
A small company in Corona hopes to launch in California a machine it helped design to keep food waste out of landfills -- a total of 5.6 million tons a year that produce toxic groundwater and polluting gas.
US Farmers turn Food Waste into Fertiliser
Published on Sep 23, 2012 Source: AlJazeera English
The world's biggest economies are set to gather for a G20 meeting next month, where they will decide whether action is needed to bring down soaring food prices.
But while some struggle to put food on the table, research shows that the average American throws out about 180kg of food every year.
About 40 per cent of all the food bought in the US ends up in the bin. Now, some inner city farmers are trying to help by recycling the waste into fertiliser to grow more produce.
As part of our "Feeding the world" series, Al Jazeera's John Hendren reports from Chicago.
But while some struggle to put food on the table, research shows that the average American throws out about 180kg of food every year.
About 40 per cent of all the food bought in the US ends up in the bin. Now, some inner city farmers are trying to help by recycling the waste into fertiliser to grow more produce.
As part of our "Feeding the world" series, Al Jazeera's John Hendren reports from Chicago.
Tons of Food go to Waste in US while many are Hungry
Published on Jun 13, 2012 Source: PressTV Global News
It is an understatement to say that food waste is a problem in the United States.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency every year more than 34 million tons of food waste was generated, making food waste the single largest component of solid waste reaching landfills. What's more, on a daily basis Americans waste enough food to fill the Rose Bowl which is the size of a football Stadium in the state of California.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency every year more than 34 million tons of food waste was generated, making food waste the single largest component of solid waste reaching landfills. What's more, on a daily basis Americans waste enough food to fill the Rose Bowl which is the size of a football Stadium in the state of California.
A hill of beans
America’s food-waste problem is getting worse
IN MANY countries one of the side effects of the second world war was to breed a generation that could not abide waste. Newspapers, jars and string were diligently saved and reused. Glass bottles were returned to their makers. Most importantly, though, food was never, ever thrown away. Leftovers were recycled into new meals, day after day. Fast forward to today and things have changed. There are reports of rich countries throwing out 25-30% of what is bought. Add in what never even makes it to the cupboard or the refrigerator, and the scale of the problem is considerably larger.
RetnaNo seconds for me
Reliable data, though, are scarce. Existing reports usually collate small-scale studies of households' leftovers and rubbish bins and then extrapolate the results across a country. So Kevin Hall and his colleagues at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, in Bethesda, Maryland, decided to look at the problem in a new way.
As they report in the Public Library of Science, they calculated the calorific consumption of America's population based on data in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey carried out by the country's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. They then compared that figure with recorded levels of food production, modified for imports and exports.
They found that the average American wastes 1,400 kilocalories a day. That amounts to 150 trillion kilocalories a year for the country as a whole—about 40% of its food supply, up from 28% in 1974. Producing these wasted calories accounts for more than one-quarter of America's consumption of freshwater, and also uses about 300m barrels of oil a year. On top of that, a lot of methane (a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) emerges when all this food rots.
Food that is not eaten cannot, of course, make someone fat. Nevertheless, Dr Hall and his colleagues suspect the wastage they have discovered and America's rising levels of obesity are connected. They suggest what they call the “push effect” of increased food availability and marketing is responsible. The upshot is more food in the waste-bin, as well as more in the stomach.
That is probably not the whole story, however. The cheaper food is, the more likely it is to be thrown away even before it is sold to someone who might actually eat it. Such supply-chain waste can be built into the price, and usually makes economic sense. Throwing away leftovers is often better business than risking running out of stock. Yet any waste of a valuable resource is offensive at a visceral level. Just ask those who lived through the war.
RetnaNo seconds for meReliable data, though, are scarce. Existing reports usually collate small-scale studies of households' leftovers and rubbish bins and then extrapolate the results across a country. So Kevin Hall and his colleagues at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, in Bethesda, Maryland, decided to look at the problem in a new way.
As they report in the Public Library of Science, they calculated the calorific consumption of America's population based on data in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey carried out by the country's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. They then compared that figure with recorded levels of food production, modified for imports and exports.
They found that the average American wastes 1,400 kilocalories a day. That amounts to 150 trillion kilocalories a year for the country as a whole—about 40% of its food supply, up from 28% in 1974. Producing these wasted calories accounts for more than one-quarter of America's consumption of freshwater, and also uses about 300m barrels of oil a year. On top of that, a lot of methane (a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) emerges when all this food rots.
Food that is not eaten cannot, of course, make someone fat. Nevertheless, Dr Hall and his colleagues suspect the wastage they have discovered and America's rising levels of obesity are connected. They suggest what they call the “push effect” of increased food availability and marketing is responsible. The upshot is more food in the waste-bin, as well as more in the stomach.
That is probably not the whole story, however. The cheaper food is, the more likely it is to be thrown away even before it is sold to someone who might actually eat it. Such supply-chain waste can be built into the price, and usually makes economic sense. Throwing away leftovers is often better business than risking running out of stock. Yet any waste of a valuable resource is offensive at a visceral level. Just ask those who lived through the war.
(Source: http://www.economist.com/node/14960159)
In Asia:
South Korea Project keeps tabs on Waste
Published on Jan 5, 2013 Source: AlJazeera English
South Korea is one of the worst offenders when it comes to throwing away food. But a new government-sponsored scheme is hoping to change that. Not every district in South Korea will be able to afford the new technology. But, the new law is designed to make residents think a lot harder about what exactly they are throwing away. Al Jazeera's Florence Looi reports from the capital, Seoul
Hong Kong: Turning Food Trash to Treasure
Published on Jan 21, 2013 Source: CNN via allbitsofegg on youtube
Patricia Wu looks at efforts to combat food waste in Hong Kong.
turning food waste into plastics and other useful things
turning food waste into plastics and other useful things
China's Clear Plate Campaign
Published on Feb 7, 2013 Source: Biz Asia America via youtube
CCTV's Han Bin in Beijing reports on China's campaign to reduce food waste. "Clear the Plate" campaign as it's called is meant to reduce the amount of food thrown away by Chinese restaurant. Reducing food waste may include cutting down on portion sizes. This is very difficult for a culture that believes better hospitality means more food.
Hong Kong: World's most wasteful city
Uploaded on Nov 15, 2010 Source: AlJazeera English
Hong Kong is officially the world's most wasteful city, generating at least 6.5 million tonnes of rubbish last year.
Where to dispose of all the trash in such a crowded city is proving to be a growing problem.
Rob McBride reports from Hong Kong.
Where to dispose of all the trash in such a crowded city is proving to be a growing problem.
Rob McBride reports from Hong Kong.
In Australasia:
Waste powers restauranteur's passion for food
Published on Sep 5, 2012 Source: ABC News via youtube
Come inside a restaurant with a difference run by a woman renowned for her strict rules on food wastage and willing to shut her business over her principles.
Source: Reuters & Huffington Post By Nina Chestney