According to the United Nations and Food and Agriculture Organization, about 815 million people of the 7.6 billion people in the world, or 10.7%, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2016. Almost all the hungry people live in lower-middle-income countries.
Whereas, roughly 30 per cent of the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted every year. This shows that there is a gap that is very crucial that needs to be bridged if we are looking forward to having food secured nations.
To achieve reduced food loss and food waste, we will need to adopt a sustainable food system (SFS). Which is a food system that delivers food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition for current and future generations are not compromised.
Sustainable food systems are critical to resolving issues of food security, poverty alleviation and adequate nutrition. They also play an important role in building resilience in communities responding to a rapidly changing environment and is fundamental in ensuring sustainable develeopment.The production and consumption of sufficient, affordable and nutritious food, while conserving the natural resources and ecosystems on which food systems depend on is vital.
However, our food systems are under increasing pressure to respond to numerous and complex challenges. These include:
Increasing demands - for greater quantity, quality and diversity of food –the world population is predicted to grow from 7.2 billion in 2010 to over 9 billion in 2050 with corresponding food demand predicted to increase by 60 per cent.
Food loss and waste – roughly 30 per cent of the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted every year.
Climate change – food systems rely on natural resources, which are extremely vulnerable to rapidly changing climatic conditions
Chronic hunger worldwide – 12.9 per cent of the population in developing regions suffer from hunger
Obesity related health conditions – globally over 30 per cent of adults are estimated to be overweight or obese.
Food price impacts on food security and wellbeing – in poorer areas people spend 50-80 per cent of their income on food and are highly exposed to price volatility.
Wide-scale ecosystem change – food production itself has caused wide-scale changes in ecosystems, being responsible for 70 per cent of water withdrawals and a significant driver of deforestation and loss of biodiversity. It is also heavily dependent on these natural resources.
You will find that some natural resources are being compromised to produce food that humans will end up not cosuming or wasting. You find water resources used in growing crops that will be left to decompose in the farms, deforestation has taken place to create more land for farming only to wase the food products.
Fuel and oil is wasted to transport perishable goods to consumers that won't even consume a quarter of that food.We really need to produce what we can consume so as to save some of these resources that could be used to generate food for those suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Good news is, various solutions are coming up to curb this issue.
Stay tuned for our next blog to see how innovations, creativity and tectnologies are being applied to reduce food waste worldwide.