New report: Global food - waste not, want not

This is shown in a new report from the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME), and once again it puts into perspective the use of raw materials.

The cultivation of biomass for biofuels takes up land. Often, however, it is forgotten that the biomass cultivated on this land is not only used to produce biofuel. The same biomass is also used to produce food and feed, because biorefining provides you with a way to separate the biomass, and thereby use all parts the material. 

The IME blames the food waste on consumers, agriculture and food stores. 

Consumers want way too perfect fruit and vegetables, food stores lure consumers into buying more by proving “buy one get one free” offers, agriculture throw away perfectly fine food because of cosmetic reasons, and in many parts of the production chain food is kept under poor conditions.

Furthermore, the figure does not reflect the fact that large amounts of land, energy, fertilisers and water have also been lost in the production of foodstuffs which simply end up as waste.

The authors of the report conclude that: “This level of wastage is a tragedy that cannot continue if we are to succeed in the challenge of sustainably meeting our future food demands.” 

Producers and stores are making an effort

The founder of the Danish movement “Stop wasting food” (Stop spild af mad), Selina Juul emphasizes that both nationally and internationally, people are making an effort to end the extensive waste of food. 

“The British report mentions nothing about this, and I believe that it focuses too much on the problem and too little on being constructive,” she says to the Danish newspaper Berlingske. 

She explains that the EU has launched a project named FUSION, which focuses on reducing food waste in the member states, and she explains that the supermarket chain Rema1000 makes an effort to reduce food waste by among other things not luring people with “buy one, get one free” offers.