We all know the statistics. Roughly a third of all food produced globally goes to waste. In the U.S., this figure is closer to 40 percent.
Triple Pundit
By Mary Mazzoni
Oct. 11, 2016
If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter.
“It’s just extraordinary how we’ve created a system where hundreds of millions of people go to bed hungry every night, and yet we have more than enough food to feed everyone but it just doesn’t reach the right people,” Jo Confino, executive editor of the Huffington Post, said on Monday at SXSW Eco in Austin, Texas.
“It’s one of those systems that is fundamentally not working for the planet and is actually becoming destructive — and we need to change that system.”
It’s true that the global food waste crisis is — finally — having a moment in the international dialogue. But while more people know about the problem than ever before, those stats refuse to budge.
A big part of the problem is that key stakeholders continue to seek a ‘magic pill’ when no such panacea exists, experts said in Austin during a panel focused on food waste.