According to the FAO, One third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally i.e about 1.3 billion tons per year.
Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production to final household consumption.
What are the impacts?
In a country like India, food is not only scarce, but also a luxury for many others.
India was ranked 97th among 118 countries in the Global Hunger Index for 2016.
About 20 crore people go to bed hungry and 7,000 people die of hunger every day
Food wastage also includes a waste of resources used in production such as land, water, energy and inputs, increasing the green gas emissions in vain.
The increasing wastage also results in land degradation by about 45%, mainly due to deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices, and excessive groundwater extraction.
Decay of wasted food also leads to harmful emission of other gases in the atmosphere.having major impact on climate change and resulting in greater carbon footprint.
What are the reasons?
People's behavior.
Poor supply-chain management.
Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production to final household consumption.
Lack of storage facilities. Only 10% of food is covered by cold storage facilities in India.
Absence of an effective distribution mechanism and legal framework
What should be done?
1996 Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act in the U.S which encourages donation of food and grocery products by protecting the donor and the recipient agency against liability.
France banned supermarkets from destroying unsold food.
It forces them to donate it to charities or food banks or send it to the farmers to be used as fertilisers in crop production.
Civil socities like India Food Banking Network (IFBN) promotes the concept of collaborative consumption with support from the private sector and civil society organisations.
These preactices should be coupled with the creation of a time-bound task force under Niti Aayog, to frame a national policy to tackle this issue.
