FEATURE
We need to stop wasting food!
By Ilana Koegelenberg
It is estimated that a third of our food is wasted (often due to poor refrigeration) – how big is this
problem really at consumer level, and what can (and should) be done about it?
COLD LINK AFRICA •
SEPTEMBER 2019
greenhouse gas emissions) generated
during the production, harvesting,
processing, distribution and disposal
of food that is not consumed.
All households, irrespective of income
level, contribute to food waste. Studies
have found a direct relationship between
household food waste generation,
household income and the number of
people residing in a household. Food
waste decreases when there are more
occupants, yet increases with household
income level. As such, households in
wealthier countries tend to generate more
food waste than those in developing
countries; while in all cases there are
significant economic costs associated
with food waste.
But the problem is far bigger. The
wasted embedded water would fill over
600 000 Olympic swimming pools – a
massive waste for South Africa, the 30th
driest country on the planet.
Also, about 90% of waste in SA is
disposed of to landfills, where the food-
waste component leads to the production
of methane gas and carbon dioxide.
According to the Food and Agriculture
Organisation of the United Nations (FOA),
without accounting for greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions from land use change,
the carbon footprint of food produced
and not eaten is estimated to 3.3 G
tonnes of CO 2 -equivalent: as such, food
wastage ranks as the third top emitter
after USA and China.
Globally, the blue water footprint
(which is the consumption of surface and
groundwater resources) of food wastage
is about 250km 3 , which is equivalent to
G
lobal estimates suggest that the
world population will reach 9.6
billion by 2050. At current lifestyle
patterns, it is estimated that we will need
the equivalent of nearly three planets
to sustain the world population in 2050.
Increasing food production to ensure
food security will put additional pressure
on already constrained natural resources.
Yet, it is estimated that between a third
and a half of all food produced globally
never reaches the point of human
consumption.
An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of
food is wasted globally each year – one
third of all food produced for human
consumption – according to the Food
and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the
United Nations.
The amount of food lost or wasted costs
UDD2.6-trillion annually. and is more than
enough to feed all the 815 million hungry
people in the world – four times over!
It is ethically unacceptable to waste
food that could be used to feed people.
In South Africa, 12 million people (24.5% of
the national population) go to bed hungry
each day, and it is reported that South
Africa has the largest proportion of food
wastage in Africa.
Food waste can be seen as having a
triple negative impact:
1. the waste of resources (including
water and energy) used along the
supply chain in the production,
handling and distribution of food that
is not consumed by humans;
2. the socio-economic impacts
associated with food insecurity; and
3. environmental impacts associated
with waste and emissions (including
The CSIR’s estimated food wastage in South Africa by commodity group.
three times the volume of Lake Geneva.
Finally, produced but uneaten food vainly
occupies almost 1.4 billion hectares of
land; this represents close to 30% of the
world’s agricultural land area. While it is
difficult to estimate impacts on biodiversity
at a global level, food wastage unduly
compounds the negative externalities
that mono-cropping and agriculture
expansion into wild areas create on
biodiversity loss, including mammals, birds,
fish and amphibians.
The loss of land, water and biodiversity,
as well as the negative impacts of
climate change, represent huge costs to
society that are yet to be quantified. The
direct economic cost of food wastage
of agricultural products (excluding fish
and seafood), based on producer prices
only, is about USD750-billion, equivalent
to the GDP of Switzerland. With such
figures, it seems clear that a reduction of
food wastage at global, regional, and
national scales would have a substantial
positive effect on natural and societal
resources. Food wastage reduction would
not only avoid pressure on scarce natural
resources but also decrease the need to
raise food production by 60% in order to
meet the 2050 population demand.
SOUTH AFRICAN PROBLEM
IN NUMBERS
Food waste is becoming an important
issue in light of population growth
and global food security concerns.
However, data on food wastage is
limited, especially for developing
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
41