Tackling food waste
PEARNEL CHARLES Jr, the agriculture minister, last week highlighted a problem of which too few Jamaicans are aware, but is in need of urgent attention in the face of the growing global scarcity and rising prices for food.
According to the minister, as was reported by this newspaper, Jamaica estimates that around 30 per cent of its agricultural output is lost each year because of a lack of post-harvest storage facilities and inadequate transportation to take products to market. He placed the cost of this loss at J$7 billion annually. However, it is not clear if Mr Charles’ figures include wasted food – that is, food which, having reached retail establishments and households, ends up in landfills rather than consumed by humans.
Addressing food waste in homes is a matter in which the Government can readily intervene through public education/sensitisation campaigns. It ought to.
Food loss and waste, of course, is not only a Jamaican problem. It is a global crisis.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that nearly a third of the world’s food production – around 1.3 billion tons – is lost, or wasted, annually. About 14 per cent of what does not get consumed is lost between harvesting and the food reaching retail markets. Another 17 per cent is waste that takes place in households (11 per cent), food service establishments (five per cent), and in the retail trade.
US$1 TRILLION WASTED
The combined value of the loss and waste, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), would be worth US$1 trillion, sufficient to feed two billion people, or about a quarter of the world’s population. And the amount of greenhouse gases released in producing this food, if it were a country, would make it the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, after China and the United States.
In developing countries, an estimated 40 per cent of the loss happens after the food has been harvested and during processing, while the reverse is largely the case in industrialised nations: 40 per cent of the loss is in household and in retail.
Mr Charles did not provide the specific breakdown for Jamaica during a ceremony at which the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), an agency that offers support services to farmers, was presented with several vehicles, including a refrigerated truck. Their use, according to the minister, will improve RADA’s ability to deliver on its mandate.
Mr Charles has separately announced initiatives, in conjunction with the FAO, to use technology to provide market and technical information to farmers, and also to improve the post-harvest handling of goods. The aim, the minister has said, is to enhance Jamaica’s food security.
A PRIORITY
Improving agricultural productivity and reducing food waste should be a priority for the Government.
After its decline with the collapse of the tourism industry and at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jamaica’s food import bill is heading back to prepandemic levels of US$1 billion, or nearly a fifth of all visible imports. The country’s food bill remains stubbornly high despite a years-old claim by agricultural experts that up to a quarter of the value of imported food could be substituted with domestic products.
Unfortunately, the country has been unable to translate the ideas and talk into production. And now, the situation is being exacerbated by the postpandemic supply chain problems that have spiked global commodity prices, which are spiralling even more because of the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Russia. As in most of the rest of the world, food inflation is a serious and worsening issue for Jamaicans.
Indeed, a survey in February by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the WFP found that nearly half of Jamaicans (47 per cent) had significantly reduced their spending on food, while over seven in 10 (72 per cent) said that they used savings to buy food. A third had sold productive assets to meet food bills.
Obviously, reducing food losses in the fields, and ensuring that more of what is grown and harvested actually reaches consumers, will positively impact food security and prices. But the food and nutrition problem highlighted by the CARICOM-WFP survey can also be mitigated, to a degree, by wasting less food.
CONSUMERS TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) food waste index for 2021 estimated that per capita, food waste in Jamaican households averaged 72 kilograms, for a total in the island’s households of more than 213,000 tons. While Jamaica, on a per capita basis, was in the range of the global average, that is a lot of food that goes down the drain, rather than eaten. Another way to look at it is, this waste is akin to throwing away money and effort while many people go hungry, or are underfed and malnourished.
Clearly, more efficient value chain and market and pricing mechanisms will solve some of the problems represented in this data. But there are other simple solutions that will also help – like consumers taking responsibility, which starts with awareness. In this case, that includes the Government helping to bring forcefully to people’s attention just how much food they waste; how much it costs them and the economy; and the global implications of food waste.
Indeed, part of the attempt should be to coax households to buy what they need; serve smaller portions at home; share meals when they eat out; utilise leftovers; be less picky about the aesthetics of a fruit or vegetable; store food appropriately; and utilise what they have to prevent spoilage. It would be good for pocketbooks, and good for the planet.