“Households across all continents wasted over one billion meals a day in 2022, while 783 million people were affected by hunger and a third of humanity faced food insecurity. Food waste continues to hurt the global economy and fuel climate change, nature loss, and pollution.”
These are the key findings of a UN Environment Program (UNEP) report published early this year. Food is wasted from the source to processing, retailing, and consumption in the households. It can be reduced by behavior change and more efficient planning. But before anything can be done about it, governments have to identify where food loss and waste are coming from.
“Food waste is a global tragedy. Millions will go hungry today as food is wasted across the world,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP. “Not only is this a major development issue, but the impacts of such unnecessary waste are causing substantial costs to the climate and nature.
Today, Sept. 29, the United Nations observes the fifth International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW) with the theme ‘Climate finance for food loss and waste reduction’, calling on the public and private sectors to reduce food waste. The action will not only enhance food security, and create savings for households, reducing food waste is crucial to mitigating climate change.
Producing food involves enormous amounts of resources like land, water, energy and labor. Wasting it affects the efficiency of food production. Food waste ends up in landfills. According to UNEP, “food waste in landfills contributes to eight to 10 percent of total agrifood system emissions, impacting climate change and environmental sustainability. Methane gas produced by food loss and waste is at least 28 times more harmful than carbon dioxide in impacting climate change.”
In simple terms – the disposal of food waste leads to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change.
In 2021, the percentage of food lost globally after harvest on farm, transport, storage, wholesale, and processing levels was estimated at 13.2 percent (FAO, 2023). In 2022, the food waste occurring at retail, food service and household level was estimated at 19 percent of all food available to consumers (UNEP, 2024).
Identifying where food waste occurs in the process of food production to consumption is important to achieve Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) 12, Target 12.3. There are only six years left to reach the target of SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production),which calls for halving global food waste by 2030.
Reducing food waste will require a significant increase in the quality and quantity of accessible climate finance, the UNEP said.
“Reducing food waste is also a climate solution, which countries and communities can employ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Successfully doing so will require a significant increase in the quality and quantity of accessible climate finance,” the UNEP said.
The Food Waste Index Report underscores the urgency of addressing food waste at both individual and systemic levels.
While government moves to secure financing for this initiative, citizens should do their share through a change in behavior in their households where most of the food wasted occurs. Reducing food waste is one’s duty to the planet.