joi, 14 iulie 2011

Reducing Food Waste

According to staggering new statistics from the United Nations Food and Agricultutre Organization (FAO), roughly 1/3 of the food produced worldwide for human consumption is lost or wasted, amounting to some 1.3 billion tons per year. In the developing world, over 40% of food looses occur after harvest-while being stored or transported, and during processing and packing. In industrialized countries, more than 40% of losses occur as a result of retailers and consumers discarding unwanted but often perfectly edible food.
At a time when the land, water, and energy resources necessary to feed a global population of 6.9 billion are increasingly limited and when at least 1 billion people remain chronically hungry, food looses mean a waste of those resources and a failure of our food system to meet the needs of the poor. The Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the planet project is highlighting ways to make the most of the food that is produced and to make more food available to those who need it.
According to tristram Stuart, some 150 million tons of grains are lost annually in low-income countries, 6 times the amount needed to meet the needs of all the hungry people in the developing world. Meanwhile, industrialized countries waste some 222 million tons of perfectly good food annually, a quantity nearly equivalent to the 230 million tond that sub-Saharan Africa produces in a year.
Unlike farmers in many developing countries, agribusiness in industrialized countries have numerous tools  at their disposal to prevent food from spoiling-including pasteurization and ptreservation facilities, drying equipment, climate controlled storage units, transport infrastructure, and chemicals designed to expand shelf-life.
Nourishing the Planet offers three low-cost approaches that can go long way toward making the most of the abundance that our food system already produces. Innovations  in both the developing and industrialized worlds include:
- getting surpluses to those who need it;
- raising consumer awareness and reducing waste to landfills;
- improving storage and processing for small-scale farmers in developing countries.

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