Reducing food production
One of the main reasons that food waste is seen as huge issue for the environment is due to the amount of land, water, fertiliser, pesticides, fuel, and transportation it takes to produce the food we use (Gomes et al, 2020). This could be cut down dramatically if we reduced how much food we produce, as it would seem we don’t need it anyway due to how much is wasted. This would reduce the negative impacts on the environment, wildlife, and climate (Gustafsson et al, 2011). It would also reduce the costs of production so it would make financial sense. There is also an opportunity for businesses to increase profits by providing smaller portions. Therefore, the cost of the product and production decreases while the profit increases (Gao et al, 2021).
This strategy would also help society as a whole mitigate the financial costs of a worsening climate and environment due to global warming which mass over-production and food waste is contributing to. So, all in all, it makes complete financial sense to tackle the issue. Just watch this video by Vox which explores the issue further (Vox, 2017).
The problems with reducing food waste
While tackling the food waste issue is very important as outlined throughout this blog, we need to be careful how we address the problem. Simply reducing food production to reduce food waste may not be the answer (Bryniarski, 2020). It may help achieve the Responsible Consumption goal of the SDGs (United Nations, 2021), but it could interfere with or prevent the achievement of other goals such as: Goal 1 – No poverty, Goal 2 - No hunger, Goal 3 – Good health and well-being, Goal 8 – Decent work and economic growth.
- Employment
There are many workers in food production all over the world. Reducing the production of food could greatly reduce employment, especially in developing nations. Agriculture makes up over 60% of employment in Malawi, Mali and Nepal (International Labour Organisation, 2021). The map below shows the percentage of employment Agriculture holds throughout the world. It is clear to understand that a reduction in food production could cause huge problems to economies. It is clear to see how this would impact goals 1, 2, 3 and 8 of the UN SDGs.
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| Fig 1 - International Labour Organisation (2021) |
- Business
It would be an understatement to say that food is big business. Every economy in the world generates a lot of income for their economy in the exports of foods. This creates a global competitive market and some nations will out perform others (Bojnec and Ferto, 2015). The graph below shows how much is generated by UK food exports over the last two decades (UK Gov, 2020). Reducing production also means reducing exports. Again, it is clear to see how big the financial impact could be by doing this which directly affects goal 8 of the UN SDGs.
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| Fig 2 - UK Gov (2020) |
- Food Poverty
Food poverty in developed and developing countries is still a huge problem (FAO, 2019). Those suffering from food poverty need more food, not less. In the UK in 2019/20, 5 million people were in food insecure households (UK Parliament, 2021). It is a difficult argument to make to reduce food production when food poverty and hunger is still a huge problem. While food is wasted, food banks still go empty and many people end up going without food (FAO 2019). Reducing food production so that there can be no waste would still cause the same problem.
Summary
Reducing food waste is essential for our planet's fight against global warming. It is of utmost importance to reduce food waste in any way we can and this is in all of our financial best interests. Reducing food waste creates opportunities for business to buy, sell and distribute food that would otherwise be wasted. This also provides an opportunity to ensure more people get access to food which could reduce food poverty. This blog post has highlighted the issues that attempting to reduce food waste by reducing production is not the answer. This could catastrophically affect employment and economies. In addition, it could worsen, rather than help food poverty. In order to reduce food waste and it's impact on the environment, we need to sustainably produce in an environmentally friendly manner and ensure that we secure employment and the world's economy when we strategise how to reduce food waste.
Bojnec, Stefan. and Ferto, Imre. (2015) 'Agri-Food Export Competitiveness in European Union Countries' in Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol 53, Issue 3. Available online: https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.queens.ezp1.qub.ac.uk/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=6a0b3e15-e3c4-4d4a-8729-8077965de3ea%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=edshol.hein.journals.jcmks53.52&db=edshol
Bryniarski, Austin (2020). ‘The war on food waste is a waste of time’ in The Outline: https://theoutline.com/post/8739/food-waste-fight-waste-of-time
Fig 1 - International Labour Organisation, The World Bank (2021). 'Employment in agriculture (% of total employment)' Available online: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS
Fig 2 - UK Gov (2020) 'National Statistics, Food Statistics in your pocket: Global and UK supply'. Available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/food-statistics-pocketbook/food-statistics-in-your-pocket-global-and-uk-supply
Gomes, Hiago., Menezez, Jorge., Costa, Jose., Coutinho, Henrique., Teixeira, Raimundo., Nacimento, Ronaldo. (2020) 'A socio-environmental perspective on pesticide use and food production' in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, Volume 197. Available online:S0147651320304668
International Labour Organisation, The World Bank (2021). 'Employment in agriculture (% of total employment)' Available online: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS
UK Gov (2020) 'National Statistics, Food Statistics in your pocket: Global and UK supply'. Available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/food-statistics-pocketbook/food-statistics-in-your-pocket-global-and-uk-supply
UK Parliament (2021) 'Food poverty: Households, food banks and free school meals.' Available online: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9209/
United Nations (2021) 'The Sustainable Development Goals': https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals
Vox (2017) 'Food waste is the world's dumbest problem.' Available online: watch
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