The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations hosted its “First International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste” recently. This year is the first-ever observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. It also comes during the global COVID-19 pandemic, that has brought about a global wake-up on the need to transform and rebalance the way our food is produced and consumed. The theme for International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction 2020 is “Stop food loss and waste. For the people. For the planet.”

The goal is to raise awareness to the importance of the problem and its possible solutions at all levels and to promote global efforts and collective action towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3, which targets to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030 and reduce food losses along the food production and supply chains.

According to the World Economic Forum, with the world’s population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, the challenge for governments around the world is, how do we produce enough food for everyone? Economists and anthropologists say that in the run-up to 2050, most of this growth will be taking place in the developing world (more than half of it in Africa). Reducing food losses and waste is essential in a world where the number of people affected by hunger has been slowly on the rise since 2014, and tons and tons of edible food are lost and/or wasted every day.

The UN FAO estimates that around 14 per cent of food produced is lost between harvest and retail. Significant quantities are also wasted in retail and at the consumption level. When food is lost or wasted, all the resources that were used to produce this food -, including water, land, energy, labour and capital – go to waste. In addition, the disposal of food loss and waste in landfills, leads to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change. That’s why the UN Sustainability Goals aim to cut food waste by 50% by 2030 (SDG 12.3). As a country, the US set a goal for the same target. Many states, cities, businesses and households are also striving to cut their food waste.

Food loss and waste also have a significant impact on the environment. The carbon footprint of wasted food is estimated at 3.3 gigatonnes. In fact, if food waste were a country, it would rank behind only the US and China for greenhouse gas emissions. The production of wasted food also uses around 1.4 billion hectares of land, 28% of the world’s agricultural area. A huge amount of surface or groundwater – known as “blue water” is also lost.

“While many countries are taking action, we need to step up efforts,” said the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, highlighting that the inaugural observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste comes as the world prepares for the 2021 Food Systems Summit. “I urge countries to set a reduction target aligned with SDG 12, measure their food loss and waste and act boldly to reduce it. Policy action in this area should also be included in climate plans under the Paris Agreement [on Climate Change],” he said.

Many businesses should take a similar approach, continued Mr Guterres, calling on Individuals to shop carefully, store food correctly and make good use of leftovers. “Let us work together to reduce food loss and waste for the benefit of people and our planet,” added the Secretary-General.