Food waste is taking on a new meaning in the pandemic era. Dumped milk in Wisconsin. Smashed eggs in Nigeria. Rotting grapes in India. Buried hogs in Minnesota. These disturbing images have stirred outrage around the world. But here’s the surprising part: the world may not actually be wasting more than normal, when a third of global food production ends up in landfills. What’s changing now is that rather than being thrown out by consumers as kitchen waste, an unprecedented amount of food is getting dumped even before making it into grocery stores.
World hunger could double. That’s according to a letter last month to world leaders signed by Nestle SA, Unilever NV, Danone SA and PepsiCo Inc. The United Nations has also warned of the risk, with its World Food Programme saying the number of people facing acute food insecurity could reach 265 million. Some groups are already trying to solve the disconnect between food waste and hunger. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, is buying $3 billion worth of surplus American meat, dairy and fresh produce that the agency will then partner with distributors to deliver food in boxes to food banks and other organizations. But it’s hard to say how much of a dent those kinds of programs will make.
While reducing home waste in the longer term would create significant benefits for natural-resource depletion and the environment, food insecurity still remains an immediate problem in the pandemic. And it will have a lopsided impact on the world, with poorer countries and food-importing nations suffering the biggest hit.
Source: Bloomberg
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