There is a reason why Climate Week, which has just ended in New York, is immediately followed by another major international moment focused on food: the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. And looking at the world today, the answer seems quite clear.
According to the Food Waste Index Report 2021, 931 million tonnes of food were wasted globally in 2019, equal to 17% of total food production, with 61% of that waste coming from households. In terms of environmental impact, this means that 3.3 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent, 250 km³ of water — three times the volume of Lake Geneva — and 1.4 billion hectares of land — almost 30% of the world’s agricultural area — were emitted or used to produce food that would never be consumed.
With figures like these, it is easy to understand why food waste is increasingly recognized as one of humanity’s most critical ecological and ethical challenges. But it is also a serious social and economic issue: food waste represents an extraordinary waste of money in terms of resource costs — $1 trillion in annual losses from wasted labour and material resources used to produce food — environmental costs — $700 billion per year from wasted carbon, land and water — and social costs — $900 billion per year due to higher healthcare costs and lost productivity among people weakened by nutritional deficiencies and food insecurity.
And yet, beyond the paradox of today’s world — where one third of all food produced is wasted while people across the globe continue to suffer from malnutrition — what is perhaps even more troubling are the reasons behind these senseless behaviours.
At household level, food is thrown away because it is forgotten and left in the refrigerator for too long, because of a lack of creativity in managing and reusing leftovers, inadequate meal and shopping planning, laziness, the tendency to prepare and serve too much food, almost compulsive food purchasing, and the fear of running out.
Italy knows this problem well. According to data from the Waste Watcher Report 2022, each Italian wastes, on average, more than half a kilogram of food every seven days.
Yet there is another piece of the puzzle that needs to be considered, and one that researchers have only recently begun to highlight. Another serious problem affecting our agrifood systems — overnutrition — should in fact be considered a new form of food waste.
The fact that the world produces and consumes more food than is actually necessary for human needs is now well established in high-income countries. Studies show that daily caloric intake in countries such as the United States and Canada, as well as across Europe, exceeds 3,000 kcal per person per day, around 30% more than the actual nutritional requirements of urban populations.
Likewise, over the past four decades, the global prevalence of obesity has almost tripled and continues to rise, also affecting low- and middle-income countries due to the spread of junk food high in sugar, salt and fat across every region of the world.
What is the connection with food waste? Their remarkably similar characteristics.
Both overnutrition and food waste are driven by the easy availability of food, ease of access and a strong propensity to purchase it.
Both overnutrition and food waste are based on an excess of food, whether consumed or discarded: data show that people with obesity consume 18% more food than those following a standard diet.
Both overnutrition and food waste worsen our environmental footprint on the planet: data from a recent study on overnutrition in Italy highlight how much CO2 is emitted as a consequence of an excessive relationship with food — 6.15 Mt of CO2-eq per year, compared with an average of 1.75 t of CO2-eq in food-related emissions among people of normal weight.
According to this study, adults with obesity and those who are overweight would be responsible for an increase in emissions of +24% and +12% CO2-eq, respectively.
Read the article on Nova
