Reducing waste of food: A key element in feeding billions more people

Seed Daily via SPX: Families can be key players in a revolution needed to feed the world, and could save money by helping to cut food losses now occurring from field to fork to trash bin, an expert said. He described that often-invisible waste in food - 4 out of every 10 pounds produced in the United States alone - and the challenges of feeding a global population of 9 billion in a keynote talk at the 245th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

"We will need another 'Green Revolution' to feed the world by 2050," said John Floros, Ph.D., referring to the development of high-yield, disease-resistant breeds of grain and other agricultural innovations that took root in the 1960s. "That will mean scientific innovations, such as new strains of the big three grains - rice, wheat and corn - adapted for a changing climate and other conditions. It also will require action to reduce a terrible waste of food that gets too little attention."

Floros cited estimates that in many developing countries up to half of the food harvested from farmers' fields is lost before reaching consumers. He is dean of the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University. That waste can occur due to spoilage from improper storage of grain during transportation or from pests. Rats and mice alone eat or spoil 20 percent of the world's food supply due to contamination with their urine and feces.

"A different kind of waste occurs in the United States and some other developed countries," Floros said. "Developed countries have much more efficient systems for preserving, storing, transporting and protecting food from spoilage and pests. But as a nation - households, supermarkets, restaurants, other food-service providers - we throw away about 4 out of every 10 pounds of food produced each year."...

Banquet food going to waste, shot by Celiafung, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license