Arthur Drag
DANIELA GODOY
THE UNITED Nations Trendy Meeting established September 29 because the World Day of Awareness of Meals Loss and Raze to promote insurance policies that cleave again poverty and hunger and attend wrestle local weather swap.
That is a debate that we is no longer going to ignore. The Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that in Latin The usa and the Caribbean, 11.6 per cent of meals manufacturing is lost between the publish-harvest stage and retail, no longer at the side of the latter. Fixed with figures from the UN Ambiance Programme (UNEP), 19 per cent of the total meals supply is wasted, at the side of extinguish in households, meals services and products and shops worldwide.
In Latin The usa and the Caribbean, meals losses and extinguish (FLW) generate a carbon footprint of 300 million hundreds carbon dioxide (CO2), representing about 540 kg of CO2 per particular person per year, exceeding the world moderate of 500 kg.
FLW is a world explain with a long way-reaching financial, social and environmental consequences, and its prevention and reduction require comprehensive insurance policies and actions promoted by the diverse sectors and actors in agrifood systems.
Given this, technological innovations seem like a brand new resolution to reducing the impact of meals losses and extinguish on local weather swap on our planet.
To prevent and mitigate the impacts of FLWs, it is miles a need to identify on to promote applied sciences for the atmosphere friendly use of pure resources and energy that cleave again environmental pollution and greenhouse gasoline emissions throughout manufacturing processes, prolonging the shelf lifetime of meals, asserting its safety throughout publish-harvest, storage or processing.
Thus, innovative initiatives much like biotechnological easy suggestions to transform expired meals into uncooked area matter for the animal feeding industry, the implementation of neat packaging, or blockchain systems to retain away from meals extinguish for reasons that have not got the relaxation to close with its safety can salvage a distinction on this matter.
These applied sciences would possibly perchance maybe well even fortify the switch in direction of circular devices to salvage extra atmosphere friendly use of resources and reuse meals loss and extinguish streams, achieving, to illustrate, the recovery and redistribution of meals much like minimally processed fruits, vegetables, cereals and tubers for social projects or meals banks.
Likewise, these innovations would possibly perchance maybe well salvage it that you just’re going to imagine to connect watch over extinguish in college feeding programmes and meals services and products or to area product advertising and/or rotation at sale sides for final consumption.
The prevention of FLW continues to pose regional challenges, much like salvage entry to to financing for technological innovations, extra atmosphere friendly practices in household farming or minute-scale manufacturing, and the technology of files to set up how grand meals is lost or wasted, where in the supply chain it is miles targeted, and what the causes are.
Reducing and preventing meals losses and extinguish are a need to maintain for remodeling agrifood systems into systems that are extra atmosphere friendly, resilient, inclusive and sustainable. This can cleave again the local weather footprint throughout manufacturing and consumption and contribute to meals safety and diet. Selling new applied sciences is a mandate to discontinue this.
Daniela Godoy is the senior protection officer in meals safety and diet at the FAO’s Regional Net page of job for Latin The usa and the Caribbean
