Dear colleagues of the HLPE Secretariat,
I first wanted to thank you for providing this opportunity to comment the Zero Draft Consultation Paper on “Food Losses and Waste in the Context of Sustainable Food Systems”. It is a well-structured paper, very useful to understand the FLW issue and its interlinkages with the environmental and socio-economic components of agriculture.
I would just have the following comments/suggestions:
- Page 10: It is a bit unclear why “some inefficiencies or fraction” are not considered as Food Loss and Waste. A short explanation on why each of these items are being excluded would be helpful. In particular, the exclusion of feed from the definition of FLW could be somehow controversial, as meat waste (which is food waste) also represents a waste in terms of feed, and in the end, in terms of land/water/energy use, etc
- Page 10-11: need for harmonized methodology: you could highlight here the Food Loss & Waste Protocol, a project initiated by WRI
- In Section 3 “ Reducing Food Losses and Waste for Sustainable Food System and Food Security”: you may want to add a section on the environmental impacts of food loss and waste reduction
- You could also add a specific section on fish loss and waste, as this is an issue that is quite different from the other food waste: a lot of the waste happens through side catches that are then put back to the sea. The solutions are very specific and could be introduced separately.
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In 4.1 Possible Areas of Recommendations:
- Recommendation 2. The cost-benefit analysis tool should also include what are the environmental costs & benefits of the potential solutions
- The lack of R&D was mentioned page 43 (“Less than 5 per cent of the funding for agricultural research is allocated to post-harvest systems …”), so increased R&D in this field should be part of the solution.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that the WBCSD is currently mobilizing its member companies on the topic of food loss and waste reduction. We are participating in the development of the Food Loss and Waste Protocol and are aiming to develop a platform for business action on the topic, gathering companies from different part of the agricultural value chain in order to build more synergies between existing reduction initiatives. I would thus be interested in being kept informed of any FAO-related initiative in this space.
With many thanks and kind regards,
Violaine
Violaine Berger
Natural Capital - Food & Biomaterial Solutions
Violaine Berger