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Saturday, January 12, 2013

What a waste!

A new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers has found that as much as 50% of all food produced around the world never reaches a human stomach due to issues as varied as inadequate infrastructure and storage facilities through to overly strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free offers and consumers demanding cosmetically perfect food.

With UN predictions that there could be about an extra three billion people to feed by the end of the century and an increasing pressure on the resources needed to produce food, including land, water and energy, the Institution is calling for urgent action to tackle this waste.

In the UK as much as 30% of vegetable crops are not harvested due to them failing to meet exacting standards based on their physical appearance, while up to half of the food that’s bought in Europe and the USA is thrown away by the consumer.  Also, about 550 billion m3 of water is wasted globally in growing crops that never reach the consumer.  It takes 20-50 times the amount of water to produce 1 kilogram of meat than 1 kilogram of vegetables. 

In the end, engineers have a crucial role to play in preventing food loss and waste by developing more efficient ways of growing, transporting and storing foods.  But overall it is a team effort where Governments, development agencies and organizations like the UN must work together to help change people’s mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers.

For more about the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and its work, see www.imeche.org
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