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| Food Wastage |
*FOOD WASTAGE*
There was this YouTube video by
TEDx I watched a few months back. And I was really captivated by the way the
presenter started his presentation. I mean, he got himself 10 plates of well
prepared food on stage. At the beginning of the talk, he asked if anyone was
interested in a plate of the delicious food and someone stood up, he offered a
plate of food to the person. The participants of the conference got charged and
excited at once. Even as I watched the video, I got excited likewise, like
really! The crowd started interacting and having side talks for seconds. Then,
he resumed his discussion. After a minute or thereabout, he picked another
plate of food, everybody focused their attention on him this time, and I did
the same as I watched the video. To our surprise, the presenter called for a
trash and poured the food into the trash. The reaction everywhere was an
expression of something awkward. He took the third plate, wasted the food in
the trash, did the same to the fourth, fifth, sixth and even to the tenth plate
of food. We all were really disappointed. Why waste 9 plates of food and give
out just one?
Well, all he did was to
communicate his points on food wastage and he chose that method because he felt
that is the best way he could catch the attention of his audience. And really the
lesson sank in the people, after he discussed all his facts and figures. Food
wastage is really one of the major challenges we have in the world of food. And
it is really worth discussing.
By way of definition, what is
food wastage?
According to FAO, food wastage
refers to the discarding and alternative use of food that is safe and
nutritious for human consumption. This can happen in quite a number of ways;
fresh food that are usually discarded and eliminated from the supply chain
because of a little difference in their shape, colour or size; foods that are
close to or beyond best-before date that are usually discarded by retailers and
consumers; large quantity of wholesome edible foods are often unused and discarded
from household kitchens and eating establishments.
Food wastage in our time is so
critical that one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or
wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tonnes per year. And the
reality is that in the developed world, more that 50% of food wastage happens
in our homes. The value of annual wasted food is more than $1 trillion. All
these in a world where 1 out of 9 people sleep in hunger every day. Food
wastage is really a global challenge. And if we can fight it in our homes, then
statistically, we have fought 50% of the problem.
According to FAO, reducing food
loss and waste is critical to creating a Zero Hunger World and reaching the
world’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 2 (End Hunger) and
SDG 12 (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns).
For many people in the world food
is actually a surety, but we should also never ignore the fact that there are
about 800million others with almost nothing to eat. Let’s join in the campaign
against food wastage. It is for the betterment of the planet earth!
Thanks for reading!
References:
Article By:
Oluwadurotimi Okediji
Food, Nutrients & Health.
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