Social aspects, food waste can cause an increase in food prices or food inflation, food becomes difficult to obtain, especially for the poor, resulting in malnutrition due to food scarcity.
Waste of Water Resources
Considering that agriculture accounts for 70 percent of water use worldwide, food waste also represents a huge waste of freshwater and groundwater resources. It is said that the water used to produce uneaten food each year is three times the volume of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
Ecological Losses
About 3.4 million hectares of land, which is approximately one-third of the world’s total agricultural land area, is used to grow wasted food.
Economic Losses
Meanwhile, from an economic aspect, there is a waste of money, especially if the food is not consumed and then thrown away. This can trigger inflation.
FOOD WASTE MANAGEMENT EFFORTS
To stop food waste, changes must be made at every stage of the process which can start from:
• Farmers and food processors to supermarkets and individual customers. As a first step, priority should be given to balancing production and demand. This means less use of natural resources to produce excess food that will rot in the fields.
• Large restaurants, supermarkets, retail outlets and individual consumers can also reduce their “food footprint” by identifying where waste occurs and taking steps to address it, as the City of San Diego did in January 2022 .
