What is Food waste?
The literal definition of food waste is "food waste or food lose is food that is discarded or lost uneaten"- Wikipedia. Food waste is one of the biggest problem and challenge that we face in the 21th century. Almost 33%- 50% of all the food that is produced goes to landfills. Not only does the food go to waste but also the land, energy, time and water. This means only half of the food that is produced, in the whole world, is eaten and the other half is thrown away. It was estimated, that in USA itself, approximately 133 billion pounds of food is wasted. This can feed almost 6.5 million people at an average of 1,996 pounds per person per year. Looking at a country like Yemen where currently there is a famine, 133 billion pounds of food could feed more than half of the population. But, unfortunately most food waste goes into landfills where it decomposes and release's methane, which is extremely bad for the environment.
Causes of Food Waste
Throwing away leftovers is not the only reason for food waste. Food is wasted in almost every part of the process of producing. Of all the food waste, twenty percent is made during the production, twenty percent during the distribution and sixty percent by the consumers. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is an organization that helps reduce world hunger. In 2011, the FAO set off to find how much food is wasted during the production and how they could reduce it. They found out the amount of food waste was enough to feed 870 million people, four times. Soon after a global conference was held, and many different representatives were called. The conference was