Food Loss and Wastage

Food Loss and Wastage

The FAO (2019) defines food loses as the decline in food substances meant for human consumption that occur in the food supply chain. Conversely, FAO (2019) defines food wastage as decline in human food materials at the final stages of the supply chain, i.e. the retail and consumption stages. As such, food loses or wastage does not include loses in food materials that are not produced for human consumption. Food loses are of five types namely, agricultural production, post-harvest, processing, distribution and consumption. This paper seeks to discuss the concept of food wastage from a multi-level perspective.

According to FAO (2019) data on per capita food loses, the developed nations experience higher rates of loses than the developed nations. Also, most of the food loses occur production to retail stages in the third world nations while the developed nations experience greater loses at the retail and consumption stages. The disparity in the data is attributed to the economic states of the respective countries. For example, the developed countries have mechanized their agriculture and have improved storage and processing technologies. On the other hand, the third world countries with limited financial resources have poor farm machines and rely on poor storage facilities. As such, the under-developed nations incur more loses at from the production to retail stages while the developed nations incur less loses at these stages.

FAO (2019) further notes that majority of the loses occur in between retail and consumption stages in the developed nations. Conversely, third world countries experience significantly lower loses at the final stages of the food supply chain. In fact, on average there, is as much food wasted in a developed nation as is produced by in a developing country. As explains, this scenario is due to higher income rates in the developed nations and resulting improved standards of living. Adds that the citizens of these countries are more concerned about the safety of the food they consume. For example, they are more likely to dispose products whose “good-before date is approaching” than their counterparts in the less privileged nations. Also states that the increased ability to purchase is responsible for higher amounts of food being wasted in the urban areas as urban dweller tend to purchase excessive stock that they fail to consume before the food material go bad.

Beside these economic factors, there are social factors that contribute to food wastage El Bilali, H. (2019).  . Such include lack of awareness regarding food donation legislations and perceived liability in donating food. This leads to many Canadians throwing away food materials that could have benefited a needier person (Gooch, Felfel, & Marenick, 2012). Also, the failure of food handlers to consult the consumers when planning the menu contributes significantly to the total amount of food wasted. Such social complexities result in large amounts of food being wasted.

Furthermore, businesses have developed a culture of accepting food loses. Corporate executes view food loses as part of the costs of running a business. As observes, the government has played a significant role in aiding this situation. For instance, the fees for using landfills in Canada are quite low which keeps them from developing measures to curb food wastage. Besides, the Canadian government has failed to enforce regulations that would ensure mandatory reusing or recycling of food especially by food-processors.  Many argue that the government has failed to do so because of the huge amounts of taxes that such businesses pay to the government. Thus, a waste-insensitive culture continues to thrive in the country.

Food waste and loses affect virtually every aspect of society. Firstly, food-processing businesses incur additional costs when their raw materials and stock gets damaged. Moreover, they have to pay for wastage management services. This leads to loses in the revenue and profits. Also, methane gas, produced when waste food materials are disposed of in land-fills or garbage pits, ends up in the atmosphere where it contributes to global warming and climate change. Ultimately, this practice leads to food insecurity whereby most of the citizens especially those with low incomes being unable to afford a decent meal. Thus food wastage affects all of us including its perpetrators and secondly parties.

Every year, Canadians waste substantial amounts of food. Indicates that at least 35.54 million metric tons exit the Canadian food value chain as waste every year. This accounts for about 58.1 % of all food materials entering the food supply chain in Canada. Of this, at least 11.7 million metric tons, equal to 49.46 billion dollars, is unprecedented as it is possible to avoid such loses. Such statistics are perhaps the reason why there are over four million Canadians, including 1.4 million children, who are food insecure (Benyam, Kinnear, & Rolfe, 2018) and (Nikkel et al., 2019).

The implication of these worrying figures is twofold. Firstly, it presents opportunities for recycling entrepreneurs who could tap into the huge amounts of food wasted to generate energy and manure. Additionally, the numbers shows that there is a big opportunity for innovators in the food value chain especially in area of food production and storage (Serraj, Krishnan, & Pingali). There is need to develop more efficient technologies that can keep food materials fresh for longer.

Secondly, there is a cause for concern as far as environmental and climate issues are concerned. This is because continued discarding of organic matter would lead to increased global warming resulting from the methane gas that decomposing matter yields. As Kim and Kim (2010) notes, climate change, with all its demerits such as unpredictable weather patterns, would follow. Besides, reckless disposal of food waste poses health risks and causes lose of beauty in the environment (Losses & Waste, 2011).

In conclusion, food loses and wastage is a huge problem for the Canadian people. There are a number of factors, including social, political and economic ones, that work together to maintain the current situation as it is. However, there is need for governmental intervention as well as innovate solutions since statistics show that nearly half of the loses can be avoided.

References

. Also,  Majority of the loses occur in between retail and consumption stages in the developed nations while third world countries experience greatest loses at the production to retail stages

Benyam, A., Kinnear, S., & Rolfe, J. (2018). Integrating community perspectives into domestic food waste prevention and diversion policies. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 134, 174-183.

El Bilali, H. (2019). The multi-level perspective in research on sustainability transitions in agriculture and food systems: A systematic review. Agriculture, 9(4), 74.

Gooch, M., Felfel, A., & Marenick, N. (2012). Food waste in Canada: opportunities to increase the competitiveness of Canada’s agri-food sector, while simultaneously improving the environment. Value Chain Management Centre, George Morris Centre.

Kim, M. H., & Kim, J. W. (2010). Comparison through a LCA evaluation analysis of food waste disposal options from the perspective of global warming and resource recovery. Science of the total environment, 408(19), 3998-4006.

Losses, F. G. F., & Waste, F. (2011). Extent, causes and prevention. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Nikkel, L., Maguire, M.  Gooch, M., Bucknell, D., LaPlain, D., Dent, B., Whitehead, P., & Felfel, A. (2019). The avoidable crisis of food waste: Technical report.

Serraj, R., Krishnan, L., & Pingali, P. Agriculture and Food Systems to 2050: A Synthesis. Agriculture & Food Systems to 2050, 3.