Global hunger and food waste

 One trillion dollar worth food wasted every year which can feed nearly two billion people

We live in a world where some  people waste their food and some go hungry every day. The rich and middle class people waste food while the poor people sleep hungry.  Approximately $ 1.3 trillion dollar worth  of food is lost or wasted every year, accounting for roughly one-third of the world’s food. 

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), reversing this trend would preserve enough food to feed 2 billion people . That’s more than twice the number of undernourished people across the globe.

Food wastage, rather than a shortage of resources, is the key factor behind global hunger, according to the head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Gilbert Houngbo, president of the UN agency, said there is more than enough food being produced to feed the world’s population of over 7 billion people.
Food waste does however represent a tragic loss of resources and should be addressed.

Consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa each year.

If wasted food were a country, it would be the third largest producer of carbon dioxide in the world, after the U.S. and China.

Roughly 30 to 40 percent of the food supply in the U.S. is wasted, which works out to more than 20 pounds of food per person per month.

But for millions of people in the developing world, this food waste happens at harvest time. Poor storage leads to pest infestations or mold that ruin crops before they even leave the farm. A lack of access to technology and markets means many farmers are forced to watch their crops rot in their fields — the manual and financial investment required to harvest them is often not available.

In high-income countries, most food is wasted after it’s purchased, in restaurants, homes and hotels. But in low-income countries, where the vast majority of the world’s hungriest people live, most food loss occurs during growth, harvest and storage.

For millions of people in developing countries, this food waste happens at harvest time. Poor storage facilities in farms lead to pest infestations and mould ruining crops. Lack of access to technology and markets means many farmers are forced to watch their crops rot in fields as the labour and financial investment required to harvest them is often unavailable.

Along with chronic poverty, conflict and economic shocks, food loss is one of the root causes of hunger worldwide. Food loss also represents a waste of the very resources used to produce food — such as land, water and energy.

We need to educate people. We need to find ways not only to produce food that is full of nutrition, but also to stop waste and bring about programs to teach people about how to value the food which is reaching to their tables.”
According to the UN report, global hunger is on the rise again, affecting 815 million people in 2016, or 11 percent of the global population.
That marked an increase of 38 million people compared to 2015, with the rise largely due to a proliferation of violent conflicts and climate-related shocks, the report said.
Asia has the largest share of hungry people with 520 million of the total, followed by Africa with 243 million and Latin America and the Caribbean with 42 million.
The number of children under five suffering from stunted growth stands at 155 million, while 52 million are underweight. The report also found that 41 million children under 5 are overweight, while 641 million adults are obese.
The climate change has a direct impact on food production, which eventually increases the risk of food insecurity as well as malnutrition, particularly among children.

                                                                                   The editor