10% of the Earth’s inhabitants are starving, people throw away 17% of all food
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The United Nations Environment Program presented a report on the disposal of food products in the world. It follows that 17% of all edible food on Earth goes to waste. At the same time, 783 million people in the world live in a state of constant hunger. This is almost 10% of the planet’s population.
On average, each inhabitant of the Earth annually throws away about 79 kilograms of food products that are not useful to him. The average resident of the USA throws away 115 kg of “extra” food, a European – 65 kg, a Russian – 56 kg. The total amount of food waste in 2022 was 1.05 billion tons. This is approximately 1 billion servings of food per day.
Most products – 60% – are thrown away by individual consumers and households. About 28% falls to the general public, 12% remains unclaimed in retail stores and supermarkets.
The UN emphasizes that “excess” products are thrown away not only in rich countries. The amount of food waste per family in countries with a high, medium and low income level differs by no more than 10%.
The fact that humanity sends almost a fifth of all products to the landfill is not only wasteful. The report states that the increase in the volume of food waste harms the environment and makes a significant contribution to adverse climate changes. Rotting food waste produces 8-10% of all annual emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In addition, changing the environment to support fields, pastures and other agricultural production is a useless waste of natural resources.
The executive director of the UN Environment Program, Inger Anderssen, said: “Today, millions of people are starving, and millions are throwing food away. This is a problem not only for the development of society, but also for the environment and climate.” The UN calls on states to cooperate more with private and non-commercial initiatives on food redistribution and food security.
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