Save Food

Save Food

By Dr Arvind Kumar

Between 30% and 50% or 1.2-2bn tonnes of food produced around the world ends up as waste every year. This startling revelation is made in a recently published report by the UK's Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME), which attributes this wastage to unnecessarily strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free and Western consumer demand for cosmetically perfect food, along with "poor engineering and agricultural practices", inadequate infrastructure and poor storage facilities. In the wake of United Nations predictions that there could be about an extra 3 billion people to feed by the end of the century and growing pressure on the resources needed to produce food, including land, water and energy, the report calls for urgent action to tackle this waste.

The food thus saved could be used to feed the world's growing population – as well as those in hunger today. It also entails 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. In order to prevent further waste, governments, development agencies and organisation like the UN must work in tandem to help change people's mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers. Bulk food wastage takes place in lavish parties. Wasting food should be made a criminal offence attracting heavy fines. 

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