Yesterday the United Nations released a report on the effects of food waste in the world (1,3 billion tons per year!). For the first time, the consequences of this waste are analyzed from an environmental perspective, with particular attention to climate change, land use and water resources, and biodiversity.
The bottom line is that waste causes economic losses of $750 billion and is highly bad for the environment. The food that is produced but not consumed requires the use of a volume of water equal to the annual flow of the Volga River and is responsible for releasing 3,3 billion tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Similarly, 1,4 billion hectares of land – about 28% of the planet's agricultural area – is used each year to produce food that is wasted. What about the $750 billion? They are the cost, for producers, of food thrown away.
Says FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva: "we cannot allow a third of the food we produce to be lost or wasted due to improper procedures, when 870 million people in the world are unable to feed themselves every day".
