Combatting food waste could save $700 thousand million

Almost 870 million people in the world are malnourished. At the same time, approximately a third of global food supply ends up in a bad state, thrown away or wasted. That’s about 1,600 million tonnes of edible material in general. It’s predicted that we’ll hit 2,100 million tonnes by 2030. What’s more, there are hidden consequences in the form of increasing greenhouse gases. Those gases are the result of rotten food, which confirms that these foods are a big contributor to global warming.

A new report shows what the benefits of ending food waste would be.

Courtesy of The Boston Consulting Group

The inhumanity of the situation has driven some governments, companies and non-profit organizations to take fast action. A new report from the Boston Consulting Group has starkly quantified the problem. This report predicts that by 2030, the loss and waste of food in the world will be equivalent to approximately $1.2 billion every year.

To put together their report, the BCG examined the existing investigations of organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Resources Institute. Then, the group created their own optimized food system model. That involves expanding innovation in all sectors to prevent all much waste as possible.

The report reveals how some food system solutions can lead to a significant saving. To be precise, there could be an estimated saving of $700 thousand million. The consulting group didn’t specify exactly how this correlates to numbers of people fed. Despite that, in lots of cases these solutions will have a direct impact on communities in the developing world, communities that need to be paid more fairly for what they produce.

A “lack of awareness”

To help everyone start to move forward, the BCG has identified five key ‘drivers’, or stops on the road from food production to consumption. They’ve also identified 13 different initiatives that can help under different circumstances. The needs of people involved in cultivation and storage differ from the needs of those involved in processing and packaging, or distribution and retail. In any case, the costliest basic factor is still “lack of awareness”.

Courtesy of The Boston Consulting Group

According to the report, the four other principal factors are the inadequate “supply chain infrastructure”, the problematic “efficiency of the supply chain”, a weak “political climate” and, generally, poor collaboration between all of the groups involved in the sector.

Courtesy of The Boston Consulting Group

The BCG estimates that lack of awareness in itself leads to a loss of almost $260 thousand million every year. “(People) often think that meat, fish, fruit and vegetables are healthier when they’re fresh rather than frozen”, indicates the report.

The BCG offers plenty of other suggestions for improving logistics. A good opportunity would be to create a widely recognized “eco-friendly sticker for the reduction of food waste”. That could unify lots of these practices under one umbrella. That would help put pressure to make changes on more groups involved in the industry.

Befreshome
12/11/2019