By Vijay GarG
About 870 million people globally are undernourished, while almost 2.5 billion tonnes of food produced annually goes unconsumed. And the financial cost? A whopping $1 trillion. In fact, growing more food isn’t necessary to end world hunger; reducing just 50% of food loss or waste could end it.
No one can survive without food. We say that it is a matter of concern that many people are dying without food amid fears that the availability of food items will become scarce due to many factors such as price rise, inflation, unemployment, shortage of cash, and damage to agriculture. Moreover, many people in poor countries are unable to eat even two meals to their satisfaction. But what is shocking is that no one takes the issue of food wastage seriously. An Indian in India wastes 50 kg of food every year? The statistics are not only surprising but also shocking. 50 kg of food is wasted per person every year in India. This puts India second on the list of countries that waste food most negatively. Clearly, the huge quantity of food we waste sits uneasily with the millions of people who go hungry every day.
According to the United Nations Food Waste Index Report 2021, 61 percent of the food wasted in India takes place in our kitchens. Statistics show that 69 lakh kg of food is thrown away uneaten every day in Mumbai. If we avoid wasting this food, half of the people of Mumbai will go hungry. This means that the amount of food produced is much higher than the daily requirement. The impact of food wastage is not only a moral issue but also an environmental concern. Another report found that 33 percent of greenhouse gases are caused by a faulty food chain. China is the number one food waster. Every year, around 91 million tonnes of food is wasted here. Next is China. The sad part is that China, which has the largest population, and India, which is the second largest, are not rich countries, and many people in both countries go to bed hungry every day. A strong emphasis on hospitality in the cultural heritage of India and China may also be a major factor in food wastage. Cooking too many ingredients and cooking too many types of food on important occasions such as restaurants, ceremonies, ceremonies, weddings, and festivals is wasted to a large extent. Apart from these, food items are wasted in many ways such as transportation of agricultural products, rotting of products, wastage, etc.
Food waste is everyone’s problem. Therefore, it’s time to reflect, rethink and reconsider why this has assumed gigantic proportions, and discuss potential ways to address it. While proposed solutions have usually been in the economic and political realm, it remains to be seen what organizations can do to stop food wastage; specifically, how we can use technology to prevent, reclaim and manage it. Resources deployed to produce, process, transport and dispose off food likewise generate a huge amount of waste and expense.
Coupled with raging food-price inflation and persistently high energy prices, food loss and waste constitute one of the most urgent and daunting challenges in society. Everyone is part of the food-waste problem and everyone could be part of the solution. Preventing food waste, after all, is simply the right thing to do.
Vijay GarG Retired Principal Educational Columnist Malout Punjab.
