Reducing food loss and waste represents a triple-win
opportunity with an immediate positive impact on food security, climate benefits,
and increased availability of nutritious food while improving the overall
sustainability of agrifood systems, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said today (29/09/2023).
Speaking at an event to mark the International Day of
Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, Qu described the current ways in which our
foods and fibers are produced, consumed, and distributed as needing urgent
change “to ensure food security and accessible healthy diets for all.” The Director-General emphasized it was time
to stop listing the challenges and to move to concrete actions. He added that
business as usual was no longer an option, but this could only be changed if
all partners and players made a concerted effort to implement identified
actions.
Currently, more than 13 percent of food produced globally is
lost in the supply chain from after harvest and prior to retail, and a further
17 percent is wasted in households, in food services, and in retail, according
to FAO and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) statistics.
At the same time, millions of people across the world are
malnourished, and the world is off course to achieve the most globally agreed
nutrition targets. Healthy diets are an essential part of addressing this
issue, yet more than 3.1 billion people will be unable to afford a healthy diet in
2021.
Shift to a circular
model
Instead of the current linear “take-make-discard” model, the
FAO Director-General said global agrifood systems “must be transformed to be
more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable.”
FAO argues that the priorities must be to prevent and reduce
food loss and waste at source - in production, handling, processing, packaging,
storage, and consumption; rescue, recover, and redistribute surplus or unsold
food that is safe and suitable for consumption and recycle and upcycle or
repurpose by-products to keep them out of landfills.
In a message read on his behalf, Pope Francis said:
"The food that we throw into the trash is torn from the hands of those who
lack it and who also have the right to food." UN Deputy Secretary-General
Amina Mohammed said in a video message: “We need profound changes in the way we
produce, handle, store, process and consume food if we are serious in tackling
food waste.” Elizabeth Mrema, UNEP’s Deputy Executive Director, called on
“governments, companies, institutions, and individuals to align with
international goals to reduce food loss and waste.”
Other participants with messages underlining the need for
action on Food Loss and Waste included: The President of the International Fund
for Agricultural Development, Alvaro Lario; the Humanitarian and Development
Programme Director of the World Food Programme, David Kaatrud; the Ministers of
Foreign Affairs of Andorra and San Marino, Imma Tor Faus and Luca Beccari, as
well as Leyla Fathallah, UNEP Advocate on Food Waste for West Asia and Diarmuid
Gavin, FAO National Goodwill Ambassador for Ireland.
Agrifood systems degrade
land
FAO has warned that our current agrifood systems degrade
agricultural land, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity, and consume groundwater.
Reducing food loss and waste is central to the
transformation of agrifood systems by increasing the availability of food,
contributing to food security, and healthy diets, building resilience, and reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
Qu described tackling
the problem of food loss and waste as a ”win-win for people and for the planet”.
FAO’s work
In order to monitor progress and use data for continued improvement, FAO today launched a Food Loss App – called FLAPP. This App will allow the crowd-sourcing of information from farmers to better understand where in the value chain losses occur, and to provide concrete solutions.
Much of FAO’s work on the ground focuses on the reduction of
loss in the supply chain, i.e. loss that occurs between harvest and the market,
while UNEP’s role is to work more on waste at the retail and household level.
Among the areas in which FAO has been active is supporting
micro-, small, and medium enterprises MSMEs in Thailand in pinpointing food loss
hotspots and helping to put in place measures to mitigate the losses.
Elsewhere, FAO has introduced improved, sustainable bulk packaging along with
good post-harvest management practices, to transport fresh produce in a number
of countries in South and Southeast Asia. In another initiative with partners,
FAO is helping to provide training to fishers in Tanzania in new methods for
handling and processing fish. Finally, FAO has developed a methodology to
measure food loss and waste in the service industries of resorts in Small
Island Developing States.
More investment
needed
In order to bring about the shift to more circular agrifood systems, FAO has called for more public
and private investments in infrastructure, logistics, technologies, and
innovation as well as capacity development and awareness-raising.
Transitioning to more circular food systems offers the potential
to accelerate progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)
12, Target 3 of halving per-capita
global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses
along production and supply chains.
Source:
Online/GFMM
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