Why does it matter?
Why does it matter?
Producing food uses a huge amount of land, water and energy, so when food is wasted so too are the environmental resources used to produce it. Additionally, the disposal of food waste significantly impacts climate change. In 2021, WWF’s report, Driven To Waste, indicated that approximately 10 per cent of all GHG emissions stem from food waste. And, as agricultural resource-use expands around the world, 4.4 million km2 of agricultural land and 760km3 of water are used to produce the 1.2 billion tonnes of food that are lost before, during and after harvest or diverted to other uses such as animal feed and biofuel. This equates to a landmass larger than the Indian subcontinent and water volume equivalent to 304 million Olympic swimming pools - and this doesn’t even include the additional resources used to produce food that are wasted further down the supply chain.
What can we do?
What can we do?
At WWF we are working with UK retailers to increase the amount of support given to farmers to help measure, report and reduce food waste on farms. This all starts with improving awareness of farm stage food waste and increasing the number of farmers measuring and reporting. We also need to see greater commitment from the UK government to tackle this issue, increasing support available to farmers and integrating food waste into sustainable agricultural agendas.
