Food: What A Waste.

The latest projections are that the world's population will be around 9.2 billion by 2050. The U.N. estimates that, as a result, food production will have to double by the middle of the century.

It's a tall order.

One big problem is the amount of food we waste: One third of all food is wasted or around $750 billion a year (See here).


Food is wasted at all stages from the field to our forks and in all countries, rich or poor:

• During harvesting (e.g. Supermarkets rejecting whole crops because they aren't the right size, colour or shape).
• Storage (a particular problem in poor countries where food rots before it gets to the customer).
• Processing and packaging.
• Distribution (e.g. Choosy customers not buying blemished veg)
• Consumption (Including people throwing out food that passes it's Sell-by date even though it hasn't reached it's Use By date, which is what we should really be following).

The fault lies with everyone along the line but because food is relatively cheap, we don't bother putting it right.

Obviously, as the population grows, and food becomes more expensive as a result (demand vs. supply), people may start to change their behaviour.

Long before that point is reached though, the poor will struggle to afford it. Some would say that is already beginning to happen. In effect, the demand from the 'rich' (that's you and me) is limiting the accessibilty of food for the poor.
Here's another bunch of statistics (not necessarily directly related ...yet) from the World Health Organisation (WHO): World obesity has doubled since 1980; At least 1.2 billion adults are overweight and 500 million of these are obese (See here).

Meanwhile, approximately 870 million people are undernourished (See here).

That's wrong on so many levels.

We need to stop wasting food now, not when it starts hitting our pockets. In the long run it'll save us money, as well as help the poor, reduce our carbon foortprint and cut the amount of landfill.

The way we live at the moment cannot be sustained for much longer. We need to think differently, to live differently, if our kids are to have anywhere near the quality of life we have. And not being so wasteful is as good a start as any.