Nutrition: UN complain environmental damage caused by wasted food - Times Online

A third of the food produced worldwide is not consumed. This is not just an economic problem, but also harms the environment according to the UN.

11 September 2013 clock 16:35 2 comments

The global food waste is directed to a United Nations report, at great environmental damage. Thus, 28 percent of the global arable land used to produce food that is never eaten.

But this production consumes about 250 cubic kilometers of water per year. This is equivalent to five times the volume of Lake Constance. In addition, the report says greenhouse gases that correspond to the effect of 3.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide produced. The direct financial losses amounted to the equivalent of 565 billion Euros a year.

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The report of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Environment Programme deals with the effects of overproduction of climate, land use, water and biodiversity.

The UN will thus not resign: “All of us – farmers and fishermen, food producers and supermarkets, local and national governments as well as consumers – need to change every link in the human food chain a bit,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva . That begins already with the “ridiculous” phenomenon in industrialized countries not to buy vegetables crooked. ‘ll Also misunderstood in many countries the expiration date as expiration date.

In Europe, especially fruits and vegetables wasted

food waste is not morally justifiable, Graziano da Silva said. “We must not allow that one third of the food we produce, thrown on the rubbish when 870 million people are hungry at the same time.” A total of 1.3 billion tons of food per year were lost.

the FAO report is particularly critical of China, South Korea and Japan. There nearly 200 kilogram of fruit, vegetables and cereals were wasted annually per person. They complain about the meat industry in North and Latin America, and the waste of fruit and vegetables in Europe.