A new UN report reveals that worldwide more than a billion meals a day are wasted
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Every night, around the world, it’s estimated that 783 million people go to bed hungry and that a third of the planet’s population faces some kind of food insecurity at any one time. Yet, at the same time as these people go to sleep on empty stomachs, a new report by the UN estimates that the equivalent of over a billion meals a day are simply thrown away.
As if that weren’t bad enough, the UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024, released this week, goes on to say that food waste hurts the global economy and fuels climate change, nature loss, and pollution. Based on figures for 2022, the report states that 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste (including inedible parts) is generated per year, totalling 79 kilos of food waste per person.
Most of the world’s food waste comes from households, totalling 631 million tonnes – or up to 60 per cent – of the total food squandered. The food service and retail sectors were responsible for 290 and 131 million tonnes accordingly.
You might think that food waste mainly occurs in richer countries, but on a worldwide average, high-income, upper-middle-income, and lower-middle-income countries differ in average levels of household food waste by just seven kilogrammes per capita per year.
One interesting pattern that the report reveals is the variations in the amount of food waste produced between urban and rural populations, with urban populations being generally more wasteful than rural populations. Although, the report does build in the caveat that in rural areas food scraps are more likely to be fed to pets and livestock or composted.
The report also notes that hotter countries seem to waste more food than cooler ones. Reasons for this, the authors say, is that higher seasonal temperatures, extreme heat events, and droughts make it more challenging to store, process, transport, and sell food safely, often leading to a significant volume of food being wasted or lost.
One thing that many of us don’t really consider when throwing food out is the environmental cost of doing so. The report makes clear the climate change impacts such food waste can have by declaring that food loss and waste generate up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is almost five times the total emissions compared to the aviation sector. Therefore, UNEP experts believe, reducing emissions from food waste is essential if we are to tackle climate change.
Although the report generally makes for a depressing read, it does point to some positive signs and developments. The report suggests that a growing number of governments are embracing public-private partnerships to reduce food waste and the related impacts on climate and water stress. One example given is the UK, where a 31 percent reduction has taken place.
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