Food Waste Trends Need To Be Reversed To Ensure Global Food Security

A study by British researchers concluded that reducing food waste in production and consumption would improve global food security – i.e., the goal of universal access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. People should be encouraged to eat fewer animal products because around 1.1 billion tons of harvested crops are used to produce 240 million tons of meat, milk and eggs. People should be encouraged to eat only what they need to have adequate nutrition: currently people eat ten percent more food than needed. Nine percent of food produced is thrown away or left to spoil. Half of food produced is lost to inefficiencies in production and consumption. Unless the trends are reversed, greenhouse gas emissions will increase, water supplies will be depleted, and food security will decline. [ Image credit: © Foerster Wikimedia ]