United Nation agencies launched Tuesday a campaign to reduce global food loss and waste, which currently amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes a year, more than four times what would be needed to solve the world's hunger crisis, according to dpa. In developing countries, food gets lost because of inefficient harvesting or poor storage conditions, while in richer nations edible fruit and vegetables are thrown away because of an unusual shape or colour and food is wasted due to over-consumption. "In a world of seven billion people, set to grow to nine billion by 2050, wasting food makes no sense - economically, environmentally and ethically," said the head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Achim Steiner. Graziano De Silva, director general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the amount of food squandered by rich countries - around 300 million tonnes a year - "would be enough to feed the estimated 870 million people hungry in the world." Consumers in Europe, North America and Oceania waste between 95 to 115 kilos of food per capita per year, while the figure for people living in sub-Saharan Africa, south and south-eastern Asia is only 6-11 kilos, FAO and UNEP said. The website www.thinkeatsave.org was launched to raise awareness about the problem. It includes advice to consumers to resist "marketing tricks to buy more food than you need" and a suggestion to restaurants to be more flexible with their portions.
