This should serve as a wake up call to everyone, but it probably won’t, and the human race will continue to waste vast amounts of food.

A report produced by the UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers estimates that as much as 50% of what’s produced is wasted.

The report, Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not, said that between 1,3 billion and 2,2 billion tons of the 4,4 billion tons produced each year “never reaches a human stomach.” Some 550 billion cubic metres of water is wasted globally in growing crops that never even reach the consumer.

The report gives a number of reasons for this, chief amongst them being the fact that perfectly edible things like fruit and vegetables don’t meet the cosmetic requirement standards set by supermarkets as well as the overly strict sell-by-date system these supermarkets adhere to.

In the UK for example, as much as 30% of vegetable crops are not even harvested because they don’t meet cosmetic requirements.

The report also targets sales that encourage people to buy far more than they actually need, and thereby don’t end up eating the food anyway.

Third-world and developing countries contribute to waste through inefficient harvesting and storage.

The report calls for urgent action to be taken because not only is this a ridiculous amount of waste, but there are millions of people who are already starving, and billions more predicted to be born by the turn of the next century. Already huge pressure has been placed on scarce resources, and this is not something that’s going to get any easier.

Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said:

The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today. It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research estimates that South Africa wastes nine million tonnes of food annually.

[Source: Guardian]