Three United Nations food agencies on Friday launched a digital campaign to tackle
the problem of global food waste saying wasted food can feed an estimated two billion
people. The new online programme, called the Global Community of Practice (CoP)
on Food Loss Reduction, was jointly launched by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and
the World Food Programme (WFP), with the goal of becoming “a global reference point”
in the facilitation of information sharing between stakeholders such as public entities,
civil society and the private sector. As a result, it will also permit stakeholders
to tap into relevant news and events and access links to online libraries and databases
as well as social networks and online trainings. In a press release marking the
inauguration of the project, FAO Deputy-Director General for Natural Resources, Maria
Helena Semedo, stressed that with more than 800 million people in the world still
suffering from hunger, saving food was of paramount of importance. “When food is
saved, the resources used to produce it are saved. Reducing waste and losses by not
creating these in the first place should be a priority for all,” said Ms. Semedo.
On the occasion of World Environment Day last year, June 5, Pope Francis had hit
out against food wastage saying “Throwing away food is like stealing from the table
of the poor and the hungry.”
According to UN estimates, roughly 30 percent of global food production, that is 40-50
percent of root crops, fruits and vegetables, 20 percent of oilseeds, meat and dairy
products and 35 per cent of fish, is either lost or wasted, amounting to some 1.3
billion tonnes – or enough food to feed 2 billion people.
Amid the wastefulness, global efforts to reduce the “unacceptably high” rates of food
loss must also be holistic, IFAD Vice-President Michel Mordasini added, pointing
to the role of smallholder farmers who, he said, were “most vulnerable.” For its
part, the WFP’s Post-Harvest Loss Reduction initiative currently reaches 16,000 smallholder
farm families in Uganda, with the aim of reducing post-harvest losses by 70 percent
amongst participating smallholder farmers.
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