Op-Ed........Two Billion tons of food ends up waste?

       According to a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, as much as 2 billion tons of all food produced ends up as waste.

   This could be as much as 50% of all the food produced around the world that never reaches a human stomach due to issues as varied as inadequate infrastructure and storage facilities through to overly strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free offers and consumers demanding cosmetically perfect food.

     With UN predictions that there could be about an extra three billion people to feed by the end of the century and an increasing pressure on the resources needed to produce food, including land, water and energy, the Institution is calling for urgent action to tackle this waste.

    The 'Global Food Waste Not Want Not' found that:

    * between 30% and 50% or 1.2-2 billion tons of food produced around the worls each year never reaches a human stomach;
   
    *  as much as 30% of UK vegetable crops are not harvested due to them failing to meet exacting standards based on their physical appearance, while up to half of the food that's bought in Europe and the USA is thrown away by the consumer;

     * about 550 billion m3 of water is wasted globally in growing crops that never reach the consumer;

     * it takes 20-50 times the amount of water to produce 1 kilogram of meat than 1 kilogram of vegetables;

      *  the demand for water in food production could reach 10 13 trillion m3 a year by 2050.  This is 2.5 to 3.5 times greater than the total human use of fresh water today and could lead to more dangerous water shortages around the worls:

     *  there is the potential to provide 60-100% more food by eliminating losses and waste while at the same time freeing up land, energy and water resources.

    Dr. Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said;

    "The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering.  This is food that could be used to feed the world's growing population-as well as those in hunger today.  It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.

   For the full report, click here:  http://www/imeche/org/news/archives/13-01-10