The key numbers to understanding food waste are presented in this article.
A third of the world’s food ends up in the trash today, enough to feed the 820 million hungry people in the world. Not to mention, points out the latest IPCC report, the environmental impact of this formidable waste. The cause: the overconsumption of the richest countries.
Products damaged at the time of harvest, unsold supermarket items, leftovers thrown in the trash … Food lost and wasted throughout the production chain represents billions of meals. However, it is precisely 2 billion additional mouths that will need to be fed by 2050, while 820 million people are still hungry around the world today.
The latest IPCC report highlights the role of reducing food waste in mitigating global warming and reducing threats to food security, according to waste management experts at at INRA. Because the stakes are high: if it were a country, food waste would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Also since 2016, France has been forcing supermarkets to give their unsold goods to associations. But real progress can only be accompanied by a profound change in our Western consumption habits, which overestimate everyone’s food needs and throw away the products before they expire.
All kinds of savings could be achieved by reducing food waste. From dumpster rental cost reduction to medical bill decrease from less people with obesity or Type-2 diabetes, the list is long.
A third of the food produced is lost
Food waste has tripled in 50 years. Today, 1.3 billion tonnes of edible food ends up in the trash every year around the world: this is 40 tonnes per second. A figure that could reach 2.1 billion by 2030.
The rich waste twice as much as the poor
Annual production of edible food varies from 460 to 900 kg per capita worldwide. So that at similar rates of loss, the waste varies from simple to double between the West and the regions of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
In France it represents a total of 10 million tonnes of food, for an estimated value of 16 billion euros, as much as the 2019 budget of the Ministries of Agriculture and Labor combined.
The waste chain differs from country to country
Consumers in rich countries waste up to 20 times more food than those in developing countries. And in poor countries, it is mainly the lack of infrastructure that causes more than 50% of the losses.
The environmental impact
The environmental impact varies according to the products thrown away
The carbon footprint of a food depends on agricultural practices and the greenhouse gases produced at each stage of the life cycle. Emissions linked to land use for fodder (N2O) and ruminants and manure management (CH4) make meat the most emitting product per kilo wasted.
Overconsumption of food
But waste also concerns overconsumption of food. Excessive calorie intake is the cause of overweight for more than 1.9 billion adults worldwide.
Reducing overconsumption and better distributing food would be enough to eradicate hunger, reducing the impact of the surplus on the environment and health.