Cutting
Food Losses from Farm to Kitchen and Converting
Wastes into Animal Feeds a Key Opportunity
Nairobi, 17 February
2009 - A seven point plan to reduce the
risk of hunger and rising food insecurity
in the 21st century is outlined in new report
by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP).
Changing the ways in
which food is produced, handled and disposed
of across the globe- from farm to store
and from fridge to landfill - can both feed
the world's rising population and help the
environmental services that are the foundation
of agricultural productivity in the first
place.
Unless more intelligent
and creative management is brought to the
world's agricultural systems, the 2008 food
crisis - which plunged millions back into
hunger - may foreshadow an even bigger crisis
in the years to come, says the rapid assessment
study.
The report, entitled
'The Environmental Food crises: Environment's
role in averting future food crises', has
been compiled by a wide group of experts
from both within and outside UNEP. It supports
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's task
force on the world food crisis.
Major findings:
- The one hundred year
trend of falling food prices may be at an
end, and food prices may increase by 30-50
per cent within decades with critical impacts
for those living in extreme poverty spending
up to 90 per cent of their income on food.
These findings are supported by a recent
report from the World Bank stating that
if agricultural production is depressed
further, food prices may rise.
- Up to 25 per cent
of the worlds food production may become
lost due to 'environmental breakdowns' by
2050 unless action is taken. Already, cereal
yields have stagnated worldwide and fish
landings are declining.
- Today, over one third
of the world's cereals are being used as
animal feed, rising to 50 per cent by 2050.
Continuing to feed cereals to growing numbers
of livestock will aggravate poverty and
environmental degradation.
- The report instead
suggests that recycling food wastes and
deploying new technologies, aimed at producing
biofuels, to produce sugars from discards
such as straw and even nutshells could be
a key environmentally-friendly alternative
to increased use of cereals for livestock.
- The amount of fish
currently discarded at sea - estimated at
30 million tonnes annually - could alone
sustain more than a 50 per cent increase
in fish farming and aquaculture production,
which is needed to maintain per capita fish
consumption at current levels by 2050 without
increasing pressure on an already stressed
marine environment.
The report shows that
many of the factors blamed for the current
food crisis - drought, biofuels, high oil
prices, low grain stocks and especially
speculation in food stocks may worsen substantially
in the coming decades.
Climate change emerges
as one of the key factors that may undermine
the chances of feeding over nine billion
people by 2050. Increasing water scarcities
and a rise and spread of invasive pests
such as insects, diseases and weeds - may
substantially depress yields in the future.
This underlines yet
another reason why governments at the UN
climate convention meeting in Copenhagen
in some 300 days' time must agreed a deep
and decisive new global deal.
Other actions under
the seven point plan include:
- Re-organizing the
food market infrastructure to regulate prices
and generate food safety nets for those
at risk backed by a global, micro-financing
fund to boost small-scale farmer productivity
in developing countries.
- Removal of agricultural
subsidies and the promotion of second generation
biofuels based on wastes rather than on
primary crops - this could reduce pressure
on fertile lands and critical ecosystems
such as forests.
Medium to long term
measures include managing and better harvesting
extreme rainfall on Continents such as Africa,
alongside support to farmers for adopting
more diversified and ecologically-friendly
farming systems - ones that enhance the
'nature-based' inputs from pollinators such
as bees as well as water supplies and genetic
diversity.
A recent report by UNEP
and the UN Conference on Trade and Development
surveyed 114 small-scale farms in 24 African
countries, publishing our findings in late
2008.
- Yields had more than
doubled where organic, or near-organic practices
had been used, with the in yield jumping
to 128 per cent in east Africa.
- The study found that
organic practices outperformed traditional
methods and chemical-intensive conventional
farming and also found strong environmental
benefits such as improved soil fertility,
better retention of water and resistance
to drought.
The research also highlighted
the role that adapting organic practices
could have in improving local education
and community cooperation.
A report launched by
the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) in April 2007 also highlighted the
key role of ecosystems in food production.
The Rapid Food Assessment also follows the
IAASTD report on sustainable agricultural
production, which was co-produced by UNEP
in 2008.
Only last week UNCTAD
reported that, despite the economic crisis,
organic agriculture would continue to grow,
representing an opportunity for developing
country farmers including those in Africa.
It estimated that sales
of certified organic produce could reach
close to $70 billion in 2012, up from $23
billion in 2002.
"We need a Green
revolution in a Green Economy but one with
a capital G", says UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
"We need to deal with not only the
way the world produces food but the way
it is distributed, sold and consumed, and
we need a revolution that can boost yields
by working with rather than against nature."
He said the report also
shone a light on perhaps one of the least
discussed areas - food waste, from the farm
and the seas to the supermarket and the
kitchen.
"Over half of the
food produced today is either lost, wasted
or discarded as a result of inefficiency
in the human-managed food chain. There is
evidence within the report that the world
could feed the entire projected population
growth alone by becoming more efficient
while also ensuring the survival of wild
animals, birds and fish on this planet,"
he added.
- Losses and food waste
in the United States could be as high as
40-50 per cent, according to some recent
estimates. Up to one quarter of all fresh
fruits and vegetables in the US is lost
between the field and the table.
- In Australia it is
estimated that food waste makes up half
of that country's landfill. Almost one-third
of all food purchased in the United Kingdom
every year is not eaten.
- Food losses in the
developing world are also considerable,
mainly due to spoilage and pests. For instance,
in Africa, the total amount of fish lost
through discards, post-harvest loss and
spoilage may be around 30 per cent of landings.
- Food losses in the
field between planting and harvesting could
be as high as 20-40 per cent of the potential
harvest in developing countries due to factors
such as pests and pathogens.
This underlines the
need for greater agricultural research and
development which in Africa amounts to just
13 per cent of global investment, versus
over 33 per cent in Latin America and over
40 per cent in Asia.
Innovative solutions
are also required. A case in point is Niger
where an estimated 60 per cent of the national
onion crop, or some 3,000 tonnes a year,
can be lost. The losses also lead to emissions
of the greenhouse gas methane as the vegetables
rot. Experts are looking at using solar
dryers and other systems to preserve the
onions so they do not rot in storage or
on the way to market.
Environmental degradation
poses a major risk to food production. For
instance:
- The melting and disappearing
glaciers of the mighty Himalayas, linked
to climate change, supply water for irrigation
for near half of Asia's cereal production
or a quarter of the world production.
- Globally, water scarcity
may reduce crop yields by up to 12 per cent.
Climate change may also accelerate invasive
pests of insects, diseases and weeds, reducing
yields by an additional 2-6 per cent worldwide.
- Continuing land degradation,
particularly in Africa, may reduce yields
by another 1-8 per cent. Croplands may be
swallowed up by urban sprawl, biofuels,
cotton and land degradation by 8-20 per
cent by 2050, and yields may become depressed
by 5-25 per cent due to pests, water scarcity
and land degradation.
- In Sub-Saharan Africa,
population growth is projected to increase
from the current 770 million to over 1.7
billion in less than 40 years, while also
being the Continent on the front-line in
terms of climate change, land degradation,
water scarcity - and conflicts. Unless a
major economic, agricultural and investment
boom takes place, the situation may become
very serious indeed.
- Increased use of artificial
fertilizers, pesticides, increased water
use and cutting down of forests will result
in massive decline in biodiversity.
Already, nearly 80 per
cent of all endangered species are threatened
due to agricultural expansion, and Europe
has lost over 50 per cent of its farmland
birds during the last 25 years of intensification
of European farmlands.
"Simply ratcheting
up the fertilizer and pesticide-led production
methods of the 20th Century is unlikely
to address the challenge", says Achim
Steiner. "It will increasingly undermine
the critical natural inputs and nature-based
services for agriculture such as healthy
and productive soils, the water and nutrient
recycling of forests, and pollinators such
as bees and bats."
Notes to editors
The report 'The environmental
food crisis: Environments role in averting
future food crises' can be accessed at at
www.unep.org or at www.grida.no including
high and low resolution graphics for free
use in publications.
The report is released
during the 25th session of the UNEP Governing
Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum
taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from 16-20
February. The meeting's main focus is on
finding solutions to the current environmental,
financial, food and energy crisis through
the emerging concept of Green Economy.
More information can be found online at:
www.unep.org/gc/gc25
Nick Nuttall, UNEP spokesperson
Anne-France White, Associate Information
Officer
