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Instead of the previously estimated 33 percent, 40 percent of the food produced worldwide does not find its way to consumers but ends up in the garbage can, according to a study published Tuesday by the environmental organization World Wildlife Fund (WWF). That equates to 2.5 billion tons of waste generated in agriculture, industry and by consumers. This has a devastating impact on the environment.
Food waste supports global warming
Food waste is responsible for ten percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the study. Calculating new figures from the agriculture sector that an estimated 1.2 billion tons of edible food is lost annually before, at and after harvest, WWF’s “Driven to Waste” study currently estimates that 40 percent of the food produced worldwide is wasted, up from 33 percent previously.
In addition to the approximately 931 million tons calculated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) along the supply chain and the approximately 400 million tons of waste in the area of consumption, that’s a total of 2.5 billion tons of food waste that ends up in the garbage every year, according to the WWF study.
Area as large as EU unnecessarily occupied
“Around four and a half million square kilometers, the area of the entire European Union, are being unnecessarily used worldwide, while pressure on the climate and nature is increasing,” the WWF study says. According to the study, food waste is responsible for about ten percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. “Just under twice as much as the annual emissions of car traffic in the EU and the U.S. combined.”
WWF is therefore calling on policymakers for a “comprehensive action plan against food waste with binding reduction targets and at least a halving of food waste by 2030.” From consumers, the nature conservation organization would like to see a more conscious approach to food, “not to spurn food with blemishes” and to consider an increasingly plant-based diet from sustainable cultivation in order to reduce the global greenhouse gas emissions generated in agriculture and in relation to animal products.
— sources: vienna.at/APA/picture: pixabay.com
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