Reduce your food waste and save money and our natural resources

Total food losses have been estimated at 1.3 billion tons per year, which represents roughly one-third of the world food production for human consumption. The economic value of food losses and waste amounts to $680 billion in industrialized countries and $310 billion in developing countries. In total, food loss and waste amount to one trillion dollars globally.

Lost and wasted food represents a missed opportunity to feed the growing world population. It also comes at a steep environmental price, as land quality, water quantity, biodiversity are adversely affected. Wasted food also has a strong impact on global climate change.

You can stop good food from going to waste

An estimated 25 percent of all food calories are wasted each year, and some of that you can stop from happening. Many of us are unaware of our wasteful habits when it comes to food. With about 9 billion people expected on Earth by 2050 now is a good time to re-examine our food behaviour and make a few changes.

1. Buy only what you need. This may sound obvious, but sometimes it is hard to follow. Think about your week and plan accordingly. Make a shopping list and stick to it. That way you’ll minimize your costs and waste less food.
2. Don’t throw away perfectly good food. “Best by” and “use by” dates are useful (though more for the retailer than for the consumer), but they are only estimates. To find out how long food really stays fresh use websites like still tasty. It will give you the real breakdown on the food in your fridge.
3. Store food properly. Ensure that food is stored in refrigerators and air-tight containers.
4. Reduce or share your portions. Ask for a half-portion if you don’t think you can eat a full serving in a restaurant. And don’t be shy about asking to take home your leftovers. Share your food with others or have a dinner party with your recycled food.

Get involved and let your friends know how they can make a difference by making these few changes.

FAO and civil society strengthen partnerships in Asia-Pacific

Civil society and FAO agreed on improved space for dialogue and enhanced mechanisms to foster both closer partnerships and wider balanced representation in pursuit of the shared goal for eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition in Asia and the Pacific.

Despite important progress obtained over the years, today’s world continues to face serious problems of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. CSOs play a crucial role in food security and poverty reduction is several areas: from policy dialogue and discussions on substantive matters to programme and project design and implementation.

A CSO/FAO consultation in Bangkok on 20 and 21 November reviewed past cooperation and discussed areas for further dialogue and collaboration.

“We are making the most of new opportunities for engagement in a wide range of areas, envisaged to yield greater synergies, complementarities and impact”, Hiroyuki Konuma – FAO’s regional representative – commented at the end of the two-day consultation with CSOs for implementation of the partnership strategy in Asia and the Pacific. Based on the outcome of a mapping of CSO coordination mechanisms, a more balanced representation by CSOs will be ensured considering four main components: constituencies (small farmers, landless, agri workers, fishers, pastoralists

Overarching priority thematic areas for CSO/FAO partnerships are food sovereignty and protection of human rights, and dignity of farming to support and encourage rural youth – in support of issues dealing with agrarian and fisheries reform, land tenure, capacity building of food producers, gender equality and women development/empowerment.

For the immediate future, the engagement process will focus inter alia on setting up a CSO-FAO partnership coordination mechanism, the preparations for CSO participation at the FAO regional conference for Asia and the Pacific (Mongolia, March 2014) the APRC and the parallel CSO/NGO meeting; regional negotiations on responsible agricultural investment; implementation of the voluntary guidelines on tenure and on fisheries; and the International Year of Family Farming – amongst others.
and herders, forest dwellers, ethnic groups and indigenous people, urban poor, consumers, NGOs, women and youth), geography – in particular more space for the Pacific islands, gender, and member-based groups such as farmer associations, FAO said.

FAO : Caritas Internationalis launches global campaign against hunger

The  global campaign against hunger launched by the caritas confederation is an important contribution to raise awareness of the plight of millions of hungry people around the globe and to work towards the elimination of hunger, said Marcela Villarreal, Director of FAO's Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development.

The campaign ‘One Human Family, Food for All’ was launched in Rome with a video message of Pope Francis.

In his message, the Pope said that “We are facing a global scandal of around one billion people who still suffer from hunger today. We cannot look the other way. The food that is currently available worldwide is enough to feed everyone... This campaign is also an invitation to all of us to become more conscious in our food choices, which often lead to waste and a poor use of the resources available to us.”

“FAO fully supports Caritas’ campaign because in our global human family, it is unacceptable that while some people have enough to eat, and sometimes even eat too much, others go hungry or even lose their lives or the lives of their children to hunger,” Villarreal said.

“It is very important that a key international, non-governmental organization like Caritas Internationalis focuses on the scandal of hunger and urges institutions and each of us to fight undernourishment ,” Villarreal said.“

“The objectives of the Caritas campaign, like cutting food waste, maximizing land use for food production, supporting women farmers and realizing the right to food, among other things, are at the core of FAO’s mandate,” she added.

“Civil society organizations, like Caritas Internationalis with its 164 member organizations, are crucial in the fight against hunger, because they have the enormous advantage to reach out to so many different layers of society,” Villarreal continued.

“We particularly welcome that Caritas is asking all its member organizations to create national goals which address hunger issues in their countries. FAO also welcomes Caritas’ decision to produce a draft framework law on the right to food which its national member organizations can encourage governments to adopt.”

The Caritas campaign, ‘One Human Family – Food for All,” started on the Pacific Island of Samoa followed by a “wave of prayer” around the globe.