Food loss and waste undermine the sustainability of our food systems

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:

🗑️ Around 14 percent of the world’s food is lost after harvest, up to (but not including) the retail stage of the supply chain.

🛒 An estimated 17 percent is wasted in retail and at the consumption level.

👩‍🌾 When food is lost or wasted, all the resources that were used to produce this food – including water, land, energy, labour and capital – go to waste.

🌿 This food loss and waste account for 8 -10 percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions.

🔥 When wasted food ends up in landfill with no access to oxygen, it produces methane—a greenhouse gas that is at least 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. These greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change, resulting in extreme weather events such as droughts and flooding.

🍎 These changes negatively impact crop yields, reduce the nutritional quality of crops, cause supply chain disruptions and threaten food security and nutrition.

Our food systems cannot be resilient if they are not sustainable. Let’s work together to build sustainable food systems so that no food goes to waste

What you can do

✅ Join the FoodMesh network and become part of a growing community of organizations across Canada who are coming together to help ensure that surplus food is quickly and efficiently diverted to the people in our communities who need it most.

If you’d like to learn more about how FoodMesh can help you reduce your food waste, book a consultation today.

Reduce food waste at home

✅ Visit Love Food Hate Waste for tips on how to prevent food waste at home. It includes everything from how to extend the life of the products in your fridge, to how to use up leftovers.