New Technologies Focus on Reducing Food Waste
F ood waste is a significant international problem. According to a 2013 United Nations report, approximately 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted annually. The report, Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources was the first research study to examine the impact of global food wastage from an environmental perspective. The report also revealed that 28% of the world’s agricultural area or 1.4 billion hectares of land is used annually to produce food that is lost or wasted. Worldwide food wastage costs an estimated $750 billion annually to food producers. Wasting food also wastes the oil and water used to produce it. Food that rots in landfills creates greenhouse gas emissions. “All of us – farmers and fishers; food processors and supermarkets; local and national government; individual consumers – must make changes at every link of the human food chain to prevent food wastage from happening in the first place, and re-use or recycle it when we can’t,” said José Graz