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  • Each year, one-third of all the food the world produces is lost or wasted.

  • Not only does this mean an economic loss; it means that all of the natural resources used for growing, processing, packaging, transporting, and marketing that food were also wasted.

  • Imagine, 28% of the world's agricultural land grows crops that are wasted.

  • That equals the total land area of China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan.

  • Plus the water wasted in growing those crops equals the annual flow rate of the Zambezi or the Volga rivers,

  • an amount that could cover all the world's household water needs.

  • And as agriculture and fisheries expand into wild areas, overexploiting natural resources, forest and marine habitats are lost along with their biodiversity.

  • Above all, wasted food emit some 3.3 giga-tons of greenhouse gases.

  • If this were a country, it would represent the third largest emitting country in the world.

  • This cannot continue.

  • With a future of more people and fewer resources,

  • We cannot afford to throw our natural resources out with the garbage.

  • Let's do something about wastage.

  • Food producers can invest in better harvest and storage technology to avoid food loss.

  • Food retailers can reduce prices of that imperfectly-shaped vegetable,

  • and donate unsellable yet edible surplus grocery food to those in need.

  • Food not fit for human consumption should be reused to feed animals.

  • Individual consumers can be more careful shoppers, use better methods to store and recycle leftovers,

  • and request smaller portions in restaurants.

  • Small efforts add up.

  • The food wastage pyramid is based on garbage.

  • Policymakers can enhance the ability

  • of producers, retailers, and consumers to turn that pyramid around.

  • For example, develop capacities of food producers to adopt post-harvest technologies.

  • Revise those sell-by expiration dates

  • so perfectly safe food is not discarded.

  • Launch awareness-raising campaigns to inspire consumers

  • to take whatever steps they can to stop food wastage.

  • Reduce landfills through investments in transforming food waste into compost and biogas.

  • The solution starts with you.

  • Each producer, supermarket, household, restaurant, and nation

  • has a part to play.

  • It would take the commitment of all to reduce food loss and waste

  • so that all the natural resources used to produce food

  • will end up as meals for the world's population

  • instead of as garbage in landfills.

Each year, one-third of all the food the world produces is lost or wasted.

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