The World Economic Forum 2016 met in Switzerland this week (Jan 20-23) to discuss a variety of topics. Their mission: “Our activities are shaped by a unique institutional culture founded on the stakeholder theory, which asserts that an organization is accountable to all parts of society.” (Bold ours)
One topic of interest in the Global Agenda category is what author Rosamond Hutt believes are the 10 biggest global challenge we will face. Her first one is global food waste. Original article link: What are the 10 biggest global challenges?
“Agriculture sectors will have to become more productive by adopting efficient business models and forging public-private partnerships. And they need to become sustainable by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, water use and waste.
The risks if we fail? Malnutrition, hunger and even conflict.”
We never realized how much waste occurs as part of the production to retail portion of food production.
All areas except South and Southeast Asia waste about the same. I’m sure if someone analyzed the original data statistically, it wouldn’t be significant different!
North America and Oceania waste the most at the consumer level. How many times more waste do we generate when compared to Sub-Saharan Africa??? How sad!
This reinforces that we all need to make a concerted effort to reduce our food waste!
Every one – from farmer to consumer has a role to play. Let’s do our part and encourage the other levels to do theirs!
Decluttering the Stuff 
I’ve noticed making the proper amount of food per meal and not having leftovers is the best way for me to waste less. It’s a European thing that I picked up, the portion control. When I make something I make enough but not too much. That includes buying the proper amount. Yeah I don’t need a huge bag of potatoes. I realized that one normal sized potato feeds us both. So I buy about 4 for the week. Over buying is the main issue. If you buy too much, you will then waste more because you can’t finish it all.
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totally agree!!
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1/3 of all the food produced in the world is wasted each year. Unreal!! I hate seeing fruit rotting beneath trees (so much so that we sneaked over to our neighbor’s house last summer and picked 2 bushels of pears off the ground). I hate going to company picnics because it’s hard for me to watch people get big plates of food and throw half of it away. I hate it when members of my own family toss good food out of their fridge because they “don’t like leftovers”. Oh yes, food waste is one of those things that really bothers me.
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It’s interesting that Latin America wastes more in production than us, but we still end up wasting the most.
😦
Oceania??
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