Why Is There Still Hunger When We Produce 1.5 Times the Food We Need?

If we can manage food wastage, we can feed the world

Food wastage seems to be a normal occurrence in societies. Almost everybody participates in this act; individuals and organizations alike. We forget that we have foodstuffs in the fridge, reject a fruit that doesn’t look very fresh in the market. And most saddening, we forget that some persons somewhere, probably within our neighborhood, need this food we trash.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations stated that an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted globally each year, one-third of all food produced for human consumption. It is however appalling that the growing rate of food wastage around the world seems to be proportional to the number of people who have nothing to feed themselves with, daily.

In line with FAO’s contribution, the amount of food being wasted or lost yearly is more than enough to feed all the 815 million hungry people in the world conveniently four times over. In solving food wastage, we solve the problem of hunger to an extent.

What does food wastage then imply?

Food Wastage

Most people confuse food waste with food loss. Although the two concepts are related in the sense that a portion of food that has been produced will become unavailable for consumption. However, we can create a distinction between the two concepts.

While food loss refers to food lost during the early stages of production, that is, during harvesting, storing, or transporting, food waste refers to edible substances, fit for consumption that are nonetheless disposed of as a result of spoilage or rejection. Hence, food wastage encompasses leftovers of cooked food items, rotten food items, rotten vegetables, expired food, etc.

Why Is Food Being Wasted?

Consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food as the entire net amount of food produced in sub-Saharan Africa every year. If wasted food were a country, it would be the third-largest producer of carbon dioxide in the world, after the US and China.

Food wastage begins from the stage of the food supply. After food items are harvested from the farms, they are stored and then transported to urban areas where demand is high. The phase of transporting these food items features both the loss and eventual wastage of most of these products.

Many food items spend weeks in transit to get to the consumers. During this phase, most perishable items would have begun to spoil. The unspoiled ones lose their fresh looks and end up getting rejected at the point of exchange.’ When no one opts to buy them, they are disposed of, thus resulting in food waste. Most individuals, on the other hand, carelessly handle perishable and cooked meals. They either forget them in the refrigerator until they have a stale taste, or they have the habit of disposing of every leftover food — deliberate food waste.

However, it is important to note that when edible substances are wasted, it is not just the food items that we waste. Resources put into its production are also wasted, as they do not achieve the purpose for which they were used. For example, 20 percent of the land, 32 percent of the energy we produce, and 70 percent of the water we withdraw from lakes, rivers, and underground are wasted because of food wastage.

Supermarkets and restaurants also play a huge role in food wastage. Restaurants waste food by mismanaging inventories and serving oversized portions. Supermarkets and grocery stores often encourage food wastage by overstuffing their shelves to satisfy their customers, and Food items with dent may be discarded.

To fully grasp the level of hunger and how much of it can be alleviated once we can tackle food wastage, it is necessary to envisage how much food we need to end world hunger.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about 802 million people are hungry in the world currently, and another 2 billion are expected to join them by 2050. However, it remains ironic that even though the world’s farmers produce enough food to feed 1.5 times the global population, the hunger situation keeps increasing.

The current world food production can cater to at least 10 billion individuals, and currently, the world’s population is about 7.6 billion. Globally, 30–40% of all food is being wasted. Simply put, world hunger would at least significantly reduce if we stop food wastage. Judging from reviewed statistics, the world can feed its hungry members. To achieve this feat, food waste has to be controlled and significantly reduced. Moreso, world hunger is on the rise because of climate change. The agriculture powerhouse may see significant declines in yield.

It is predicted that The US’s Midwest region will see at least a 20% decline in corn production, Brazil will see a 16% drop in corn production, Indonesia will see a 20% drop in corn production.

What Can Be Done to Control Food Wastage

In controlling food waste, restaurants should study their consumers and draft meal plans that encourage good eating habits so that people do not waste food. For supermarkets, perishable food items should be stored in minimal quantity. The more these foodstuff are stored, the higher their tendency to get spoilt.

Individuals and organizations should be encouraged to donate unused food throughout the production line. Last Minute Market (LMM) works with farmers, processing centers, grocery stores, and other food sellers to reclaim these losses. Also, investing in farmer’s education can help reduce food waste. Quarterly data containing the amount of food that has been wasted in the world should be released as this will help us monitor and be aware of how much food is still being wasted.