Africa’s bread basket, but biggest wasters

IN A WEEK of hammer blows to consumers, a hail of reports of inexorable price increases, comes perhaps the cruellest one of all – the amount of food we waste, according to the Household Food Waste Disposal Study.

We’re supposed to be the El Dorado of Africa, the bread basket of the continent, but sadly more than a fifth of us go bed hungry every night – 12 million people.

To cap it all, we are the biggest wasters of food between Cape Town and Cairo – 30%. Almost a third of the food that is produced in South Africa is not eaten – because we buy too much and then it goes off and has to be thrown away.

We often buy too much food because it’s on special, or we buy too much food or make too much pap because our livelihoods are so busy that these are the most convenient staples to have in the house to either prepare meals for the week or slap a quick meal together.

When we waste food, we also waste all the effort, energy and time that has gone in to making the food; transporting it to the shops and our own energy, time, effort and cost that have gone into buying it and preparing it.

As we waste more, we buy more to survive, pushing up inflation in a vicious cycle in which those who can least afford it, get squeezed even tighter.

We can make a difference, we can shop more wisely and we can ensure that we prepare our oldest food first while we still can and before it needs to be thrown out. We can also think more innovatively about either incorporating leftovers into our meal planning or avoiding leftover food.

The bottom line is, we can’t waste so much food when so many of us have to sleep on an empty belly.

Where the gulf between those who have and those who don’t is vast, that’s scandalously profligate.