The Great Global Food Waste Scandal.

If the world already produces enough food to feed 12 billion people, why do we keep hearing about food security and not food waste?

Instead of hearing a story about the need for food security, we should be hearing a story about the need to reduce food waste.

Did you know that about a third of all food produced is thrown away at some stage.  In fact, in some sectors up to 40% of food produced is thrown away before it even gets to the first stage of processing.

The answer is because the global food system is now controlled by a powerful few that are in the business of selling, not reducing.

These organisations have been grooming us to be consumers of processed foods, and have been grooming farmers as consumers of inputs.  In many instances it is the same company in the business of both.

Positioning yourself in the middle of the food supply chain is precarious but highly profitable.  Like any supply chain, it is precarious in the sense that if consumers can get closer to the origin of their food, then mid-market participants would be out of business.

Consequently, they have been aggressively establishing their position, consolidating and defending it.

But to keep making loads of money, two things need to keep happening:

-                        -  Farmers need to keep overproducing,

-                      -  And we need to keep overeating.

Reducing global food waste is the elephant in the room, because less waste means food would be cheaper, healthier, more accessible, less repeat-purchase of processed food products by consumers and less inputs used by farmers.

This great presentation really sets the scene:

High-levels of food waste actually keep the global food system inelastic enough for a powerful few to make a huge amount of money.

This also means there is no buffer for production shocks such as drought, which means they make even more money during times of adversity.

For these companies it is vital that a third of the world’s food is wasted.

I think consumers understand the issue of food waste very easily and are suspicious of the food security and productivity argument e.g. GM crops.  Consequently, food waste is a story not often told.

This presents some awesome marketing opportunities for savvy food producers.  If you’re food waste responsible, let’s tell consumers the story.

 

It won’t be long before messages about responsible food waste are on the front of food labels at the behest of consumers.

As much as consumers can be sold a story by the powerful few, so can our farmers of the world.  In my next blog I’ll talk about the story farmers have been sold and how many of them can now no longer feed their own families.

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