Brussels, 16/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - The publication by the FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation) on 11 May of an alarming report on food waste has brought a reaction from European Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Dacian Cioloº. He has called on consumers and all stakeholders along the food chain in the EU to actively address this issue.
“In the context of the need for global food security and the importance of the optimal use of natural resources, we cannot afford to throw away more than a billion tonnes of food at world level, as indicated by the FAO”, stated Cioloº. As part of the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP) after 2013, the European Commission intends to turn agriculture towards greater sustainability. “These efforts must not be undermined by marketing or consumer habits that are not sustainable. Each actor in the food chain, from producer to consumer, must take their share of responsibility. The EU must fight vigorously against food waste”, the commissioner argued.
He said that all stakeholders in the food chain should work on this issue, which he would like to see added to the agenda of the High Level Forum for a Better Functioning Food Supply Chain. Within the preparations for the reform of the CAP, the commissioner and his staff are working to see how local markets could be better promoted. These direct contacts between producers and consumers are suggested in the FAO report as one of the ways of reducing the amount of food thrown away.
According to the FAO report, “roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year - approximately 1.3 billion tonnes - gets lost or wasted”. Other key findings of the study are that: - industrialised and developing countries dissipate roughly the same quantities of food - 670 and 630 million tonnes respectively; - every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes); - fruits and vegetables, plus roots and tubers have the highest wastage rates of any food; - the amount of food lost or wasted every year is equivalent to more than half of the world's annual cereals crop (2.3 billion tonnes in 2009/2010). (L.C./transl.rt)