It’s estimated that by 2050, the world’s population will reach 9 billion, and there has been a lot of talk about how all of those people are going to manage to feed themselves. It’s a daunting prospect, to be sure, especially when we consider that approximately 805 million people around the globe already face chronic undernourishment.
So we need to grow more food, right? Not exactly.
What’s interlaced with these numbers and not immediately apparent is the fact that of the food that is currently produced around the world annually, about 30% of it is never consumed, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). That’s 805 million people who are chronically undernourished and a third of the world’s food is left to rot or thrown away. This is what food activist Tristram Stuart has called a “stupid problem.”
This stupid problem is generally categorized in two ways: food loss and food waste. Food loss typically happens in developing countries where insufficient technology, manpower, and distribution mechanisms result in crops rotting in fields or storage facilities, crop loss due to pests and diseases, and damage during transport to markets. Food waste, on the other hand, is associated with more developed economies where supermarkets reject produce on the basis of very specific aesthetic standards, consumers overbuy only to let food spoil in the fridge or pantry, and restaurants serve excessive portions. In many cases, perfectly good and fresh food is thrown away by the ton simply because of a labeling mistake.
This isn’t just about the food, either. When considered from a supply chain perspective, it becomes more and more evident just how wasteful this system is. Growing, harvesting, processing, storing, transporting, and selling this food all involve a multitude of other resources which, when the food is lost or wasted, are lost and wasted as well. Water for irrigation, fuel for transportation, materials for packaging, forests cleared for farmland, all the electricity used for refrigeration. None of this has served its purpose if the food hasn’t actually fed anyone.
According to the UN Environment Programme, those countries that waste food do so to the tune of about 222 million tons per year, a figure that nears the total annual food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons). I am shocked by this. I’m humbled and ashamed too. In writing on this topic, I would be remiss in not acknowledging the number of times I have overestimated my needs in the produce aisle, later ridding my kitchen of wilted greens and overripe fruit, or indeed, the leftovers I’ve saved with the best of intentions that never made their way to my plate again. Over the years, I’ve improved my meal planning, but I can and must be better. We all can and must be better.
This stupid problem is a big problem and it can be overwhelming to try to understand how and if we can have an impact upon it. There’s an emergence of initiatives committed to combating food loss and waste that are making available a wealth of information and statistics as well as resources for daily living. A couple of my favorites are Love Food Hate Waste and Think.Eat.Save. I encourage everyone to take a look and discover the ways that we as individuals and we as members of society are contributing to this stupid problem. By becoming more aware, we’re able to commit ourselves to changes, perhaps starting small and taking on more as we develop new routines.
At Clinton Development Initiative in Malawi, where I work as a Community Nutrition Support Fellow, we haven’t yet directly tackled the issue of food loss, but we are exploring the ways in which this can be done with the rural farming communities that we serve. For example, low-tech solar dryers can serve two purposes: (1) they can preserve nutritious leafy greens and fruits, such as mangoes, to ensure increased dietary diversity throughout the year, and (2) they can prevent such foods from quickly spoiling in their fresh state. Additionally, building better storage infrastructure for hardier crops like grains and beans can help reduce loss due to rodents, insects, and mold.
So, yes. We will eventually need to grow more food in order to meet the needs of 9 billion people. But we will also need to use that food and the rest of our resources more efficiently and more equitably. It’s a big task, no doubt, but for you and me, it starts the next time we walk into the kitchen.