Hunger and Food Waste

I think this is so disturbing . . .

A few excerpts from the article New report: as much as 2 billion tonnes of all food produced ends up as waste :

A new report 'Global Food Waste Not Want Not' by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reports that as much as 50% of all food produced around the world is never eaten due to issues as varied as inadequate infrastructure and storage facilities, to overly strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free offers and consumers demanding cosmetically perfect food, according to a report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The report,Global Food Waste Not Want Not, also found that between 30% and 50% or 1.2 billion to 2 billion metric tons of food produced around the world each year never reach a human stomach.

With UN predictions that there could be about an extra three billion people to feed by the end of the century and an increasing pressure on the resources needed to produce food, including land, water and energy, the Institution is calling for urgent action to tackle this waste.

Dr Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said:  "The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today. It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.

“The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers.