Every so often you read a story about the environment that makes you so frustrated you want to throw your hands in the air and scream/yell (delete as appropriate). Today is one such day although at least the potential for a solution isn’t as difficult as it may first appear.

On a planet that has seen its population double since 1967 and place ever growing demands on our resources, the concept of food being wasted with our modern infrastructure is an absolute disgrace. However a new report commitment by the United Nations food agency shows that about one third of all the food produced globally for human consumption is going to waste.There’s obviously something fundamentally wrong with our production and distribution strategies if this report is accurate, and while I could write for pages about the obvious concerns about malnutrition, fair and better food distribution, starvation and common sense, the waste of natural resources needed to produce food that isn’t even consumed is another travesty.

The total amount of food that gets wasted annually according to the report totals over a billion tonnes every year. The report shows that revamped production and distribution processes could reduce the level of waste significantly and it reaffirms (although doesn’t state) that more than enough food is produced globally at present. The study was commissioned by the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology. As you might expect the waste levels per capita in industrialized nations is far higher than the global average and the richer the nation the higher the waste as a rule of thumb. While food loss in poorer nations is mostly due to production, distribution and storage issues the waste in wealthier countries is far more often due to consumers, restaurants or retailers throwing away perfectly edible food.

In fact in North America and Europe the amount of waste is approximately 100kg/220lb of waste per person each year. That’s an outrageously high amount which has to me lowered especially when you consider in Asia and most of Africa the amount wasted is barely a tenth of that total.

The global contributions of resources to produce the annual food stock are one of the leading causes of CO2 emissions, to think we’re failing to eat as much as 33% of that food is simply unacceptable. In addition to carbon emissions just consider the use of precious land and water resources that is simply not needed. We can all make a difference by adjusting how we shop for, prepare and consume food. Even if the report is wrong by a sizable amount the amount of food and resource being wasted has to be deeply examined. For the hungry of today and all our tomorrows and a far more prudent use of our natural resources. It’s one of the most shocking reports I’ve seen in a long time.

Read far more on the United Nations FAO report via this link.