A new report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN reiterates claims that one-third of the food produced for human consumption globally is lost or wasted along the food chain.
The report, Food losses and waste in the context of sustainable food systems, is being officially launched this afternoon (3 July) by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE), and highlights the causes and potential solutions to the global levels of food loss and waste (FLW).
It suggests that action is ‘essential to improve food security and to reduce the environmental footprint of food systems’.
It also suggests that the large amount of existing conflicted data is ‘a huge barrier’ to understanding the causes of FLW and potential solutions. The report, therefore, strongly calls for the development of global protocols to measure FLW.
In the foreword to the report, Per Pinstrup-Anderson, Chair of the Steering Committee of HLPE, says: “The aim of this report, given the diversity of contexts, is to help all concerned actors to reduce food losses and waste by identifying the causes and potential solutions that may be implemented, alone or in a coordinated way, by the relevant actors in the food system”.
The report recommends that action should be taken throughout different sections of the food chain, from the public and private sectors, civil society, individual producers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers.
This is the eighth report that the HLPE has released to date, and was undertaken in response to a request from the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in 2012.
Read more: http://www.resource.co/materials/article/new-report-calls-action-food-loss-and-waste-3103
