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Friday, September 13, 2013

Fact of the Day

If food waste were a nation, only China and the US would emit more carbon pollution.

Each year some 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted, adding up to 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and costing a total of $750 billion. That's roughly one-third of all the food produced for human consumption.

FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said, "Every day, consumers, especially in the rich countries, waste almost as much food as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa."

Slightly over half of the waste occurs during production, after harvesting, or being stored prior to being delivered to consumers. The rest occurs during processing, distribution, and in the form of wasted leftovers. In wealthy nations more is wasted at the retail and consumer level whereas in poor nations a greater proportion of food waste occurs during agricultural production, and just 4-16 percent of food is wasted at markets or in people's homes.

The food wastage costs $750 billion every year, the equivalent of the GDP of Switzerland.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/if-food-waste-were-a-nation-only-china-and-the-us-would-emit-more-carbon-pollution

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