The trash can, agriculture's biggest consumer.
World's food day is October 16
Seeing the number all together makes you realize how absurd is the situation (data by COAG, goo.gl/snaZN6):
The primary and the industrial sector waste 39% of the total food chain; Households, 42%. (European Commission).
UN estimates the world population will reach 9,100 million in 2050, that is 30% more people to feed. FAO calls for an increase in food production of 70% to cover the increase in demand.
The food produced and then wasted consume water equivalent to the Volga annual flow and add 3,300 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
28% percent of the agricultural land in the world, 1,400 million hectares, are used annually to produce food that is lost or wasted.
Economic impact (excluding fish) reach 750,000 million dollars per year. Which would be enough to feed millions of people.
A certain amount of production surplus is necessary to compensate for the unpredictable circumstances of agricultural production. However, literally throwing away one third of the production is unsustainable. Something needs to be done at a global scale, both in educating the consumer and in policy change, to address this issue.
(See UNEP: http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/food_waste_the_facts)
