We all need to cut food waste

This is the conclusion of a new report, The Future of Food and Farming: Challenges and choices for global sustainability, which has just been published by the UK Government Office for Science.  The study concludes that we all need to cut food waste across the supply chain, from producer to consumer, by 50% by 2050.  This is in addition to improvements in land productivity, and changes to the mix of "resource-intensive" types of food. Only in this way, the report says, can we hope to feed the 9 billion population that the earth is expected to carry in four decades' time.

So how do we do this?  The report offers some high level solutions:

1. Narrow the gap in wastefulness between geographies, countries and organisations in terms of waste - spread best practice
2. Advance research that reduces waste further

These are good, high level observations - but now that we have the "big picture" motivation, what we need is action by individuals who can influence waste.

Some may think that in places like the USA and Europe, waste is pretty low.  We don't have the huge losses that are experienced in post-harvest storage and transport where investment in agriculture is low.  However, we do have enormous production, and even marginal waste adds up.  Moreover, recent publicity about fish discards shows an area of waste which is not normally included in official accounts of waste, because the fish are never landed.  Problems like this are due not to lack of investment, but to public policy, and this is rightly an area where the public are demanding action.

However, we cannot all get off the hook by demanding action from our elected representatives.  Much of the supply chain is under the control of businesses and individuals, and we need to accept responsibility.  Many of us can remember our elders telling us to eat up "because there are children starving in Africa".  Back in the days of overproduction, this didn't make a lot of sense.  But now, and in future, all of our waste, from field to fork, is ultimately going to put pressure on the availability of food, and we need to do something about it.

In developed countries, waste by consumers and the food service industry can be on the order of 20-30%.  The waste of food in industry is particularly interesting because in principle, companies should be motivated to reduce waste in order to reduce cost.  This could apply to consumers too, but where incomes are high in comparison to food costs, factors like "convenience" and "culture" can drive up waste.  Are these factors also influencing the food service industry?

I think so.  Most research focusses on using food waste productively (incineration for energy, or composting for fertiliser).  However, these uses generally don't save much money - they're just popular because they're fairly easy.  Much harder is to change procedures and systems so that unneeded food doesn't end up entering the supply chain in the first place.  This requires people in the organisation to accept that there's room for improvement.  That's not an easy ask.  People will ask - "if it were that easy, surely we'd have done it already?"

And that's right - this isn't the easy way to deal with waste.  However, it is the most lucrative.  Not buying what isn't needed - and using as much as possible of what you buy - is clearly going to be much better for the bottom line than disposing of waste productively - food is generally more valuable than the fuel or fertiliser it would become as waste.