Reducing food loss and waste is crucial for improving food security and nutrition, promoting the efficient use of resources, protecting the environment, and fostering a more equitable distribution of food resources globally, Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said last week.
He made the remarks in a video message to a global virtual event to mark the fifth International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (September 28). The event, which also included a message from Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and was organized by FAO and UNEP, highlighted the critical need for financing to help reduce food loss and waste and thus contribute to achieving climate and Sustainable Development goals.
Currently, more than 13% of food is lost globally in the supply chain after harvest on farms and before the retail stages. Food waste, occurring at retail, food service and household levels stands at 19%, according to UNEP statistics.
Additionally, food loss and waste account for an estimated 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The methane gas produced by food loss also has far greater potential to trap heat than carbon dioxide, impacting the environment.
“By reducing food loss and waste, countries and communities can benefit from improved food security, access to healthy diets and reduced malnutrition while decreasing their greenhouse gas footprints,” Qu said.
The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook Report for the period 2024-2033 projects that by halving food loss and waste we can reduce global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by 4%, and the number of undernourished people by 153m by the year 2030.
To achieve this, an increase in climate investments, and the re-design and up-scale of storage systems to reduce food losses upstream in the supply chain, particularly in low-income economies, is much needed. Raising public awareness and consumer education is also critical at the household level, with the implementation at the global level, the FAO Director-General highlighted.
FAO’s work at the country level
FAO is addressing the issue of food loss and waste from the ground level and up. Innovations such as the FAO Food Loss App (FLAPP) are designed to quantify food loss in crops at the micro level and facilitate efforts to achieve net zero. This technology is already helping rice producers in the Dominican Republic access information in real-time and identify solutions to areas of food loss.
In other countries, FAO is helping farmers to reduce food losses incurred during the harvesting and before retail stages. Training initiatives on better handling, sorting and packaging practices have already resulted in a 38% reduction in losses for tomato farmers in the Philippines, and less than 5% post-harvest loss for dasheen farmers in Trinidad.
G7 comments
Dongyu also told agriculture ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) countries meeting last week in Rome, Italy, that, without greater levels of financing and upscaled actions: “the world will continue to be off track towards ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 – or any time soon thereafter.”
At a Friday session on “Profitable, resilient, equitable and sustainable agrifood systems,” Qu presented some of the stark findings as compiled in the latest FAO flagship report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 (SOFI).
About 733M people faced hunger in 2023, or 9.1% of the world’s population, and that number is projected to decrease only to 582m by 2030, far short of the Zero Hunger goal for that year, the Director-General said.
Still, he cited “reasons for hope,” noting there has been encouraging progress in many subregions of the world, especially Latin America. That said, Africa’s hunger level, the highest in the world, increased by a further half a percentage point from 2022 to 2023, he added.
Qu noted that FAO is now monitoring economic access to a healthy diet. an essential policy indicator, and that while globally there had been a modest post-COVID19 decline in the number of people who could not afford a healthy diet in 2022, the number had increased substantially in Africa and that it is above pre-pandemic levels across low-income and lower middle-income countries.
FAO supports the deliberations of the G7 and the G20 with evidence-based policy advice, technical inputs, thematic reports and proposals for actions that support the provision of global public goods in food security and sustainable agriculture. This edition of the G7 Agricultures Meeting had a special focus on Africa, deemed a key priority by Italy, the current holder of the G7 presidency, as well as on migration, the climate-energy nexus and food security, and the need for governance mechanisms to ensure that the innovations offered by Artificial Intelligence can benefit all.
Scaling up investment
Investments, both more and better, in agriculture and food security were a central focus of the meeting.
“The time for transformative change is now,” the Director-General said.
He pointed to a SOFI 2024 finding that nearly two-thirds of 119 low- and middle-income countries have limited or moderate ability to access financing. Those with the least access had a higher prevalence of undernourishment, he added.
Also, 74% of countries analyzed were negatively impacted by at least one of the major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition, namely conflict, climate variability and extremes and economic slowdowns and downturns, highlighting the need and the opportunity for embedding food security and nutrition objectives in humanitarian, climate and development finance, he said.
“We must meet the challenge of increasing access to financing for countries most in need,” using existing financial tools in more innovative, inclusive and equitable ways. Qu said.
SOFI 2024 offers a lengthy assessment of options ranging from linking taxation to food security outcomes to fostering partnerships with a blended finance approach.
Qu also asked the G7 to support climate insurance for small holders.
Jim Cornall is editor of Future Food Today and publisher at Ayr Coastal Media. He is an award-winning writer, editor, photographer, broadcaster, designer and author. Contact Jim here.
