Food waste and carbon food-print challenge

Global food production is shrinking due to climate change. Conversely, enormous quantities of food are wasted globally in all stages of the food value chain which emits green house gases into the atmosphere resulting global warming. Simultaneously, it has notable impact on natural resources because all of the agro-based countries utilise more inputs (water, fertilisers, pesticides, seeds, and energy) to produce more food. It is also notable that one's food wastage creates another hunger indirectly especially for the poor people in the least developed countries. On that note, "Think. Eat. Save" is the theme of the World Environment Day 2013. Think.Eat.Save is an anti food-waste and food-loss campaign to encourage human beings to become more aware of the impact of our food choices and to reduce food-print.
Global per capita food production has increased for the past several decennia. At the same time, large amounts of global food is lost or wasted annually in the food production and consumption systems which is equivalent to the amount of sub-Saharan Africa's production according to data released by FAO. It is also reported that from 2010 to 2012, 870 million people across the world were subject to food insecurity though about half of the 4.4 billion tons of food that is produced worldwide annually is never eaten, while millions of people starve everyday across the world.
Currently, the global food production uses a quarter of all habitable land and is responsible for 70% of fresh water consumption, and 80% of deforestation. It is the largest unique driver of biodiversity loss and land-use change. IPCC reported that agriculture is the third largest contributor to global emissions by sector, contributing to 37% of the total green house gases. Methane accounts for just under half of the total agricultural emissions.
Food wastage is to a greater extent a problem in industrialised countries. Consumers in developed countries are generally inspired to buy more food than they need. According to an article published in The Guardian, the average German fritters only 15 kg food/year while the British wastes nine times more. The reports further pointed that up to 30% of the UK's vegetable crop wastage occurs in the corporate end because the food does not meet aesthetic standards, e.g. size and colour.  Japan also wastes about 20 million tons of food/annum which is equivalent to 30% of the country's inland production. America is one of the noticeable countries who contribute a lion's share of food waste: about 28.25 million tons/year. From food growing, processing, distributing, selling, cooking and recycling the leftover waste products, the average American has a carbon foodprint of over 12,000 pounds CO2e each year which is 21% of the total country's emission.
In developing countries, most food-wastage occurs during production stage due to poor infrastructure, low levels of technology, and low investment in food production systems. Climate change induced disasters are also responsible for loss food production. As a whole, food losses contribute to food insecurity for the poor people in third world countries. During the food production stage, GHG emission occurs significantly, where China and India are the largest GHG emitting countries. According to US-EPA, developing countries emitted about 4800 metric tons of CO2e/year from traditional agricultural sectors which mostly comes from the management of agricultural soil, livestock, rice production, and biomass burning.
Standpoint of food waste, Bangladesh contributes an insignificant share to the global scenario and it mostly occurs during food production stage due to poor technology and infrastructure. It is pointed that during pre and post harvesting processes almost 12% rice and 15% wheat are wasted. It is further reported that three percent of rice is wasted due to unconventional seed conservation practices. The wastage rate of perishable items like vegetables and fruits are alarmingly high at nearly 40%. In the consumption stage, the food wastage is almost zero as a quarter of populations in Bangladesh are still facing food insecurity. We have an insignificant amount of food surplus against total population demand. From agriculture, Bangladesh emits negligible percentage of GHGs. About 92.4 million kg methane from all sources of which 70% from agricultural and about 46.52 million Kg CO2e/year from all sources which is 0.16 % of world emission according to data revealed by World Bank.  It is globally proved that we suffer more for climate change effect in spite of emitting less.
We need to work together for fixing aforesaid problems. Developed countries should pay attention to avoid food waste from their consumption behaviour. Developing countries need to use updated technology and infrastructure in agriculture production stages for cutting food waste. Collectively, we need to take action to reduce the foodprint by eating locally for minimising food miles, choosing organic foods, eating fewer animals and more plants, buying unprocessed foods with less packaging, cooking with efficient appliances and techniques, composting and recycling of food waste, and initiate climate change mitigation agriculture practices. Education should emphasise the need to avoid wasting food.
Considering the growing global population and the risk of climate change and food crisis, we need to reduce food wastage and carbon foot-print for minimising humanity's impact on our planet. So think before you eat and help save our environment!

The writers work at ADAMS in the field of Environment and Climate Change. Reach them at [email protected] and [email protected] respectively.