A partial solution to the challenge of meeting the world’s growing demand for food lies right under our noses. And it stinks if we don’t do something about it.
Food waste and spoilage is everywhere and it is an extravagance we can’t afford.
No matter how the waste is measured, the tally is shocking.
A report by the Stockholm International Water Institute in 2008 found as much as half of all food produced is wasted or spoiled between field and plate.
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The United States Department of Agriculture in 1997 said about 27 percent of food in that country is wasted.
The first images that come to mind are the table scraps scraped into kitchen garbage cans, cartons of milk that go sour or half-eaten meals at all you can eat restaurants, but waste and spoilage goes far beyond that.
There are the fruits and vegetables tossed because of cosmetic flaws, food disposed from grocery stores because “best before” dates have been reached, and the big bins of rotting food outside of commercial kitchens.
There is the food that spoils during transport, and the food that rots in storage. There is the food eaten and soiled by rodents and insects.
There is the grain that falls to the ground during harvest and the produce lost to disease.
Losses in the poor developing world are due to lack of investment in efficient harvesting technology, lack of refrigeration and watertight, pest proof warehouses and inefficient transportation systems.
In India this summer, the government was criticized for the state of its wheat stores, where 17.8 million tonnes were stored under tarps, inadequately protected from the monsoon rains.
In the rich developed world, waste is often linked to culling for aesthetic reasons and to consumer waste.
A study by the Waste and Resources Action Program in Great Britain estimated that 330 kilograms per year of food were wasted for each household in the country
That’s justoversixkgperhouseholdper week, an astonishing amount.
In the developed world, where buying food takes 10 percent or less of income, there is little concern about how much goes in the garburator.
And along with it, down the drain goes the water, fertilizer and fuel that were used to produce it, not to mention the money that bought the food.
A recent paper from the University of Texas at Austin found that if Americans stopped wasting food entirely, they would save two percent of the annual energy demand or the equivalent of about 350 million barrels of oil.
The study notes that eliminating 37 percent of the waste would save as much energy as was produced by the U.S. ethanol industry in 2009.
This waste is intolerable today and will become more so in coming years.
The United Nations forecasts that the world’s population will rise by a third and food demand by 70 percent by 2050. It will be much easier to meet this food demand if waste is reduced.
Waste reduction will require a range of actions and policies.
Technology can help. New packaging is coming that will extend shelf life as will allowing irradiation of a wider range of products.
Assisting poor farmers in developing countries to adopt more efficient harvesting technology and invest in more and better storage facilities will also help.
Developed countries including Canada would benefit by adopting voluntary government-business partnerships with targets to reduce food waste.
As for consumers, food waste should be included in environmental awareness education. Wasting food should be as unacceptable as polluting rivers or leaving lights burning.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen and D’Arce McMillan collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
