HUNGER, FOOD LOSS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Globally, one third of food is lost or wasted every year. This is enough to feed more than twice the number of hungry people worldwide.
Food loss and waste
In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 50% of all fruit and vegetables never make it to market for consumption.
Farmers struggle to sell all their produce due to i.e. unpredictable weather conditions, overplanting, lack of storage, IT, market information, poor infrastructure and cosmetic rejection by export market. This also means lost income for farmers who throw away part of their harvest.
Food losses hit ~4 billion USD annually in sub-Saharan Africa.
Hunger and malnutrition
1/4 of wasted food could feed all 795million of undernourished people in the world
In Kenya, 32% of the population faces food insecurity and poor nutrition. 26% of the children in the country are stunted due to chronic malnutrition. Stunting has an irreversible impact on brain and physical development, increases vulnerability to illnesses, impairs learning ability and decreases labor productivity.
Up to 75% of salaries is spent on food in low-income households in Kenya (compare this to an average person in the UK who will spend 10-15% of salaries on food). And when salaries decrease, vegetables are usually first thing that are cut from the diet.
Climate change
If wasted food was a country, it would be the third largest producer of carbon dioxide in the world, after the United States and China.
Nearly 8% of greenhouse gases come from food loss and waste, 6 times more emissions than the global aviation industry.
Food left to rot turns into methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than CO2. Op top of that, all the valuables resources used to produce the food - such as land, water, inputs and capital - are also wasted.
Reducing our food loss and waste is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to combat climate change.
WHY IS FOOD LOSS AND WASTE SO BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?