Reducing food loss and waste for climate outcomes: Insights from national consultations in Bangladesh, Malawi and Nepal
Reducing food loss and waste (FLW) is crucial to improving food security, reducing malnutrition, and providing livelihoods for food system workers. But such efforts are also key to combating climate change. FLW has significant environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in both the production of food that is later lost and in waste management.
Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Impacts on Poverty and Food Security
Join us as we explore the effects of food loss reduction on economic growth, poverty alleviation, and food security. Discover the links between reducing food loss and strengthening food security, and explore how this strategic approach can shape economic prosperity. Furthermore, we’ll examine its role in enhancing quality of life and diminishing poverty rates.
This event will be in English with Spanish interpretation.
Speaker: Emerta Aragie, Research Fellow, IFPRI
How Much Is Lost When Disaster Strikes? New FAO Report Looks at Impact on Agricultural Production, Food Security
Nearly US$ 4 trillion: That is the amount of global crop and livestock production the FAO estimates has been lost over the past three decades due to disaster events. According to the new report, “The impact of disasters on agriculture and food security,” this equates to an average loss of US$123 billion per year and as much as 5 percent of annual global agricultural GDP.
Introduction to Food Loss and Waste
The Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab (FSN-IL) is a consortium led by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, funded under USAID through the Feed the Future Initiative. In the target geographies of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the Lab’s goal is to identify and promote uptake of novel technologies, practices or information flows that help in i) reducing food loss and waste, ii) improve food safety, and iii) enhance access to nutrient-dense (often perishable) foods.
Food Loss and Waste in Fruit and Vegetable Supply Chains
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about one-third of all food produced around the globe is lost or wasted. This is particularly egregious in a world where one in nine persons is food insecure, and widespread food affordability concerns in low- and middle-income countries have resulted from COVID-related value chain disruptions and the global impact of the war in Ukraine.
SDG 12.3 - Food Loss and Food Waste: A Once in a Generation Opportunity
Every year about a third of all food produced is either lost during production, distribution, and processing or wasted at the retail and consumer level. With 811 million people facing hunger in 2020, this food loss and waste is egregious. Food loss and waste also has significant negative environmental impacts, accounting for almost 10 percent of global GHG emissions as well as a wasteful use of a quarter of the world’s freshwater resources and of farmland that exceeds the size of China.
The second observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW)
On 29 September 2021, the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste will be observed for the second time. Reducing food loss and waste is of significant importance as it contributes to the realization of broader improvements to agri-food systems toward achieving food security, food safety, improving food quality and delivering on nutritional outcomes. Reducing food loss and waste also contributes significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as pressure on land and water resources.
Measuring Food Loss and Waste: Post-harvest Loss Surveys
Reducing food loss along the entire value chain can play an important role in improving global and local food security. However, accurate, standardized definitions and measurements of food loss have proven elusive. Without being able to properly understand the scope of the problem, policymakers and researchers will find it difficult to enact effective policies to address it. Two recent studies from researchers at IFPRI, KU Leuven, and UN FAO aim to improve the way food loss are studied and measured in order to provide a clearer policy roadmap.
Food loss is important
The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit: How to Incentivize Food Loss and Waste Reduction
Join us on March 12, 2021 for an IFPRI Policy Seminar on food loss and waste.
The ongoing COVID-19 health crisis continues to expose vulnerabilities in food systems, highlighting the insecurity of rural livelihoods, the tragedy of food loss and waste, and the stark inequities in access to healthy food. The upcoming, first-ever UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), presents a unique opportunity to bring together stakeholders from across the food value chain to address these challenges and unlock barriers to sustainable food systems transformation.
Crop Losses in Southern Africa due to Drought and Flooding
Southern Africa faced widespread drought from the October 2018 to March 2019 rainy season, with less than 55 percent of normal rainfall totals, alerts FEWS. The 2018-2019 rainfall began a month late, triggering extended dry spells between January and March. The historically low rainfall totals affected areas of Botswana, northern Zimbabwe, eastern Namibia, southern Angola, and the surplus producing areas of northern South Africa and southern Zambia, and registered a D3 (Extreme) or a D4 (Exceptional) drought as per the United States Drought Monitor classification scale.