It’s hard to believe that about half of the food produced on our planet is wasted, especially when about a quarter of Earth’s inhabitants are suffering from hunger; this, my friends is the wonderful world we live in. Not a world without resources, but a world in which we do not know how to use the resources which are given to us.
Just a few days ago, the Stockholm International Water Institute, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management released a paper in a join effort, called “Saving Water: From Field to Fork – Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain”. The work itself is really interesting, but probably the most interesting and shocking fact is that half of the food produced worldwide is wasted, and that includes water too.
“As much as half of the water used to grow food globally may be lost or wasted,” says Dr. Charlotte de Fraiture, a researcher at IWMI. “Curbing these losses and improving water productivity provides win-win opportunities for farmers, business, ecosystems, and the global hungry.” – Environment News Service
Also, this is not an exception in the developed countries which know should know how to deal with their resources better.
The paper points out that the food crisis which is ever present in today’s world is not just caused by over population and other external causes, but by some internal causes as well.
“Inefficient harvesting, transport, storage and packaging make a considerable dent in the potential availability of food. Additional and significant losses and wastage occur in food processing, wholesale, retail and in households and other parts of society where food is consumed.”