REDUCING FOOD LOSS AND WASTE

 

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered: Report – Reducing Food Loss and Waste

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News Flash

A new report by the World Resources Institute (WRI) with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation has quantified global food wastage.

• The report titled: “Reducing Food Loss and Waste”.

 

 

Key Findings

• Nearly one-third of the food that is produced each year goes uneaten, costing the global economy over $940 billion.
• Uneaten food is responsible for emitting about 8% of planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
• One in every nine-person in the world is undernourished.
• 50% of the world’s population now lives in a country that has set an explicit, public target aligned with SDG 12.3

 

Referring to India

• Food wastage in India is at an all-time high.
• In an assessment of 45 different crops over 100 regions of India found that poor storage was at the centre of crop losses.
• It identifies the lack of cold chain infrastructure as one of the major contributors for wastage of food material.
• A report in 2015 has estimated that food loss resulted in economic losses of $15 billion for the Indian economy in the FY 2012-13.

 

Global Action Agenda

• In a plan to control the global wastage of food, the report identifies three measures: The first being, “Target-Measure-Act”, followed by a “To-do list” and “10 scaling interventions”.
• Other actions include developing national strategies for food loss and waste reduction, creating national public-private partnerships, launch supply chain initiatives, reducing small-holder losses and shifting consumer social norms.

 

Conclusion

• The report states that curbing global food wastage would result in lower GHG emissions.
• It would also avoid the need to convert an area of natural ecosystems, into agricultural land between 2010 and 2050.
• Lowering global food wastage would also close the gap between food needed in 2050 and food available in 2010 by over 20%.

 

Source: Indian Express

 

READ MORE DAILY NEWS

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