Food Waste and Food Loss: 1/3 of produced globally Food is wasted according to FAO
"The results of the study suggest that roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year. This inevitably also means that huge amounts of the resources used in food production are used in vain, and that the greenhouse gas emissions caused by production of food that gets lost or wasted are also emissions in vain." (p.v) "Overall, on a per-capita basis, much more food is wasted in the industrialized world than in developing countries. We estimate that the per capita food waste by consumers in Europe and North-America is 95-115 kg/year, while this figure in Sub-Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia is only 6-11 kg/year." (p.v) "Food losses in industrialized countries are as high as in developing countries, but in developing countries more than 40% of the food losses occur at post harvest and processing levels, while in industrialized countries, more than 40% of the food losses occur at retail and consumer levels." (p.5) "Food waste at consumer level in industrialized countries (222 million ton) is almost as high as the total net food production in sub Saharan Africa (230 million ton)." (p.5) ALSO: Check out this 2009 UNEP report page 29 "The environmental crisis: The environment’s role in averting future food crisis" – UNEP, 2009 http://www.grida.no/files/publications/FoodCrisis_lores.pdf
.Source: Jenny Gustavsson, Christel Cederberg, Ulf Sonesson, Robert van Otterdijk & Alexandre Meybeck. Global Food Losses and Food Waste. Study conducted for the International Congress SAVE FOOD! at Interpack 2011 Düsseldorf, Germany. (FAO Rome. 2011) http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/mb060e/mb060e.pdf [verified 4/17/14]