Quick Facts About Food Waste

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Food loss and waste is a global challenge with enormous economic, environmental and health consequences. Read on to learn more about this issue and how Heifer International is working to overcome it.

One-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted every year.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates?1.3 billion tons?of edible food are lost or wasted every single year, totaling a third of all human food production and?$940 billion?in economic losses.

Food loss and waste happens in every region and at every stage of the food system, from field to landfill.

Developing and developed countries lose or waste?roughly the same amount?of food every year, but for different reasons depending on context and commodity. Over?13%?of the world’s total food is lost before it ever reaches a retail market.

Reliable infrastructure, like?irrigation, roads,?electricity?and refrigeration, plays a critical role in determining a region’s rate of food loss or waste.

“Technology and mechanization remain key to improving productivity and supply." - Adesuwa Ifedi, Heifer International’s senior vice president of Africa programs

Food loss and waste is a heavy burden on the environment.

If global food loss and waste were a greenhouse-gas-emitting country, it would be the?third largest?in the world. Nearly 30%?of the world’s agricultural land is used to produce this food that is never eaten, along with enough water to fill Lake Geneva three times.

While over a billion tons of food go uneaten every year, as many as?828 million?people go hungry.

The world produces enough food to feed everyone — it just isn’t on the plates of those who need it.

The number of people facing hunger has been increasing?year over year since 2014, with people in low- and middle-income countries?paying the highest price.

"Solving the issues with food insecurity has reached a boiling point,” said Adesuwa. “Africa’s food systems need bold, innovative and scalable interventions to address the root causes and ensure sustainable, systemic change.”

What is Heifer doing?

Heifer partners with smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States to?increase productivity, improve agricultural practices and build functional, efficient agribusinesses.

We also invest in?infrastructure, connect farmers to markets and?develop?value chains?in rural communities, helping to establish food systems that provide food and income where they are needed most.

“It's [about] the ability to rise beyond the conventional way to solve problems,” said Adesuwa, “creating new ways to solve those problems.”

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