As much as 30 percent of all food grown worldwide may be lost or wasted before, and after, it reaches the consumer, notes the Foresight report on ‘Global Food and Farming Futures’. Some estimates have put the wastage rate as high as 50 percent.
Addressing waste across the entire food chain will be critical in any strategy to feed around 8 billion people sustainably and equitably by 2030, a total that will rise to 9 billion by 2050. Simply halving the total amount of wasted food could reduce, by about 25 percent, the requirement for extra food production by 2050. The report says that waste reduction requires high-level international political support.
The existing knowledge and technology in storage and transport infrastructure could be deployed much more effectively and there is a need for financial and market reforms to reduce waste. The use of mobile phones could help improve market information and allow producers to make better decisions about timely supply to markets, avoiding – or at least reducing – the dips and peaks caused by seasonal gluts and shortages.
