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World Hunger vs. Food Waste
As many as 811 million people in the world go to bed hungry every night.
In addition, high food costs and low affordability mean billions lack access to healthy, nutritious food. But more than enough food is grown every year to feed everyone on earth.
Undernourished people by year
About ⅓ of all food produced worldwide—and almost ½ of all fruits and vegetables grown—are wasted each year.
(Worldwide Food Waste | ThinkEatSave )
When food is wasted at the consumer level, all the energy, resources, and money that went into producing, processing, packaging, and transporting it from farm to factory to fork are wasted too.
Food Loss
If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, behind China and the US—about 3.3 gigatons per year worldwide.
(Food wastage footprint: Impacts on natural resources)
Wasted Water
¼ of the world’s freshwater is squandered by using it to grow food that will never be eaten.
(Wasted Food Statistics)
Carbon Emissions
Food scraps and other organic materials that are dumped in a landfill get packed down and buried. Without access to oxygen, their chemical composition changes, emitting methane in the process, a greenhouse gas more potent and damaging in the short-term than carbon emissions from fossil fuels and a key driver in climate change.
Addressing the Problem
Many organizations and governments are addressing food waste head-on:
UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 aims to cut food waste and reduce food loss by 50% by 2030, a goal that has also been adopted by the USDA
Vermont and California both ban residents from throwing food waste into trash bins
California’s goal is to cut organic waste in landfills by 75% by 2025