HLPE consultation on the V0 draft of the Report: Food losses and waste in the context of sustainable food systems
In November 2012, the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) to conduct a study on Food Losses and Waste in the Context of Sustainable Food Systems. Final findings of the study will feed into CFS 41 Plenary session on policy convergence (October 2014).
As part of the process of elaboration of its reports, the HLPE now seeks inputs, suggestions, comments on the present V0 draft. This e-consultation will be used by the HLPE to further elaborate the report, which will then be submitted to external expert review, before finalization and approval by the HLPE Steering Committee.
HLPE V0 drafts are deliberately presented – with their range of imperfections – early enough in the process, at a work-in-progress stage when sufficient time remains to give proper consideration to the feedback received so that it can be really useful and play a real role in the elaboration of the report. It is a key part of the scientific dialogue between the HLPE Project Team and Steering Committee and the rest of the knowledge community. In that respect, the present draft identifies areas for recommendations at a very initial stage, and the HLPE would welcome any related evidence-based suggestions or proposals.
In order to strengthen the related parts of the report, the HLPE would welcome submission of material, suggestions, references, examples, on the following important aspects:
- How to measure Food Losses and Waste (FLW)? FLW can be measured from different perspectives (weight, caloric and nutrition value, monetary value…) with different approaches presenting pros and cons, and methodological issues. Do you think that the V0 draft covers properly the aspects of FLW measurements, including nutrient losses? Is there additional evidence about estimates of past and current food losses and waste, which would deserve to be mentioned?
- What are the key policy aspects to reduce food losses and waste in order to improve the sustainability of food systems, in different countries and contexts? Is there evidence about the potential of economic incentives, and which ones (taxes, etc.)? What margins for policies in the context of food safety laws and regulations, such as expiration dates?
- Can respondents submit concrete initiatives or successful interventions having reduced food losses and waste, currently taking place, conducted by governments, stakeholders, private sector, civil society?
- What is the cost-benefit potential (and barrier to adoption) of different options, including technologies, to reduce and prevent food losses and waste at different stage of the food chain?
- Cold chains and cold storage (including adaptable low-cost technologies for cold storage such as evaporative cooling, charcoal coolers, zeer pots, etc): what could be cost-effective and adapted solutions to reduce food losses and waste and to improve the sustainability of food systems, given the diversity of national contexts?
- Systemic approaches and solutions to reduce food losses and waste: Reducing food losses and waste is a matter which concerns the coordinated joint action (and change) by many actors, producers, retailers, consumers, private sector, governments. Which systemic solutions/approaches would be the most effective to reduce FLW, towards more sustainable food systems? At that systemic level, which drivers would create leverage for radical change?
We thank in advance all the contributors for being kind enough to read and comment and suggest inputs on this early version of the report.
We look forward for a rich and fruitful consultation.
The HLPE Project Team and Steering Committee.
Topics
- Read 50 contributions
Reduction of food looses and wastes, Suggestion on use of Systemic approaches. Food looses and Wastes occur along the value chain system. It is a graduating loose as it occurs most frequently at each point along the chain. Total numbers and quantities of food produced by farmers are lost by Farmers,Retailers,Consumers,Private sector and Government.This is because of poor cordinaton along the value chain and poor practices by each player.There are also gaps between each player that are left out unfilled. These are broken lines example is the gaps between the farmer and retailers, between retailers and consumers,and between Private sector and Governments.
These Gaps show looses occuring and opportunities lost in either missing out on job creation, income earning, wealth creation and growth and Development.
To correct this anomaly, there should be a revisit of the value chain system and actors to create room for expantion of responsibility, re-allocation of roles, and modification of actions and interventions.
The Systemic approaches stands the chance of completely reducing food looses and wastes as each line in the chain is involved visited and restuctured.
Government roles are broken and not as well cordinated as it should be, and so the required interventions and activities of Government are centered on publicity.Policy sommersult and poor management in the Government system makes it difficult for the right people to benefit. This also creates huge looses along the value chain..
Practically the farmer and farmer organisations are not been used as agents of change and interventions not based on an applicable evidences are not to be suggested or adhered to as such practices are also looses and wastes along the vaue chain.
Looses and wastes which are calculated as between 60% and above in Nigeria is allarming and a huge looses which consequences are poverty amongst farmers. By training and sensitization campaigns these looses can be reduced..
I am the Global Coordinator for Children and Youth at UNEP MGFC and actively involved in the 10YFP initiative on SCP. On World Environment Day , UNEP launched its Think.Eat.Save campaign which essentially strives to engage all stakeholders in reducing food wastage simply by being aware about the problem. About the one-third of the world's food production is either lost or wasted while thousands , especially young children , die of hunger each day. There is something essentially flawed about the supply chain --- from the farm to the fork delivery mechanism must be made more efficient. The developing nations where most of the food gets produced , supply more than what is required to the global north , for pure economic reasons . This results in tremendous wastage . Urban societies produce copious amounts of waste , many times higher than rural and agrarian societies . Distribution of food needs to equitable in sync with the population and not skewed towards economic profit.
Developing nations also require proper supply chain equipment and there needs to be investments from developed nations into this sector to ensure that food doesnot get wasted while in transit.
Civil society has a defining role to play in controlling food loss and waste generation, especially by controlling its consumption patterns. According to statistics from most surveys, our region’s main economies, rank in the top-ten worldwide in terms of per capita solid waste generation. The gross urban waste generation quantity from Middle East countries has crossed 150 million tons per annum. A majority of this ends up in landfills which is not only costly but also a loss of recycling opportunity. By promoting sustainable consumption patterns within civil society we can positively impact the quality and quantity of residential waste which in most nations constitutes the lion share of total waste.
Le niveau de vie de plus en plus développé participe à la perte des aliments dans la mesure ou il faut satisfaire les besoins de plus en plus énormes en terme d'alimentation des communautés. cette exigence fait appel à des techniques de transformations qui participe à la dégradation de rapide des aliments à cause de l'utilisation des produits chimiques. la plupart des communautés ne maitrisent pasles conditions d'utilisation de ces aliments ou de conditionement de ceux-ci engendrent alors des pertes considérables. Il est donc urgent que les produits ou limantants mis à la disposition de certaines communautés qui ne les utilisent pas de façon optimale puise les envoyer vers d'autres horizons qui en ont besoin car ils assurent difficilement les trois repas. je considère donc que c’est un problème de répartition de ces nourritures dans l'espace. A quoi bon de produire sans les pouvoir utiliser correctement, de stocker des aliments qui finiront dans des poubelles.
Il est important de faire une étude diagnostique des besoins avant de produire et de penser à transformer. n'est ce pas là une forme d'économie de l’énergie qu nos pays du sud ont tellement besoin pour faire décoller leur économie. cette énergie dont nous parlons assure en outre une bonne conservation des aliments. Voila donc un exerce de réflexion dont nous devrons mettre contribuer pour résoudre globalement le problème de perte de nourriture et résoudre localement les problèmes qui se pose ça et là dans nos contrées respectives.
--Cordialement
Cne. Mignane SARR
Ingénieur Forestier_Agroéconomiste
Conservateur AMP Saint Louis
BP:5135 Dakar Fann
Here is a link to a new article that may provide input for the topic of capacity building and extension:
OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION IN POSTHARVEST EDUCATION AND EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
Adel A Kader
http://ow.ly/r1pkU
Dr. Lisa Kitinoja
The Postharvest Education Foundation
PO Box 38, La Pine, Oregon 97739 USA
Website homepage: www.postharvest.org
Mobile phone: (916) 708-7218
Greetings of the season and thank you for the invitation to submit input on this topic.
I see a wide gap between sections 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 -- I would add Prevention of food losses via improved postharvest handling practices as 3.4.2 and add 3.4.3 for the food safety topic
3.4 Reduction of food losses through capacity building, education, training and extension services
3.4.1 Prevention of food losses by good practices in crop and animal production
3.4.2 Prevention of food losses by Food Safety control procedures
A recently completed USAID funded project in Tanzania provides a comprehensive approach to reducing food losses for small farmers, traders and marketers-- it is called a Postharvest Training and Services Center (PTSC). While the planned Wageningen project is promising, it does not yet exist, while this one is in operation in Arusha, Tanzania under AVRDC auspices.
PTSC launch article
http://hortcrsp.ucdavis.edu/main/media%20page/2013_04_01_January_Horticulture_CRSP_News.pdf
Where Food Comes From website
CRSPS.Net Presentation
http://crsps.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Wed-M-3a-Nenguwo-AVRDC-TZ-PostHarvest-Center.pdf
Harvesting Nutrition website
https://www.securenutritionplatform.org/SuccessStories/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=39
Promoting best postharvest practices
Here are a few current references that include additional cost/benefit information and practical field based information.
Kitinoja, L. (2013) Innovative Small-scale Postharvest Technologies for Reducing Losses in Horticultural Crops
Ethiop .J. Appl. Sci. Technol. (Special Issue No.1): 9- 15
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-2584.pdf
Kitinoja, L. (2010) Identification of Appropriate Postharvest Technologies for Improving Market Access and Incomes for Small Horticultural Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. WFLO Grant Final Report to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, March 2010. 318 pp.
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-1848.pdf (slide deck)
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-1847.pdf (full report)
Saran, S., Roy, S. K. and Kitinoja, L. (2012). Appropriate Postharvest Technologies for Improving Market Access and Incomes for Small Horticultural Farmers in Sub- Saharan Africa and South Asia. Part 2: Field Trial Results and Identification of Research Needs for Selected Crops. Acta Hort (IHC 2010) 934: 41-52.
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-2428.pdf
Winrock International, Empowering agriculture, energy options for horticulture. US Agency for International Development 79 pp. (2009).
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADO634.pdf
Attached are two white papers from The Postharvest Education Foundation (one on the use of plastic crates for reducing food losses, one on data collection/loss assessment) and an unpublished preliminary Hort CRSP project report with more information on the PTSC concept and its current status.
LK
Dr. Lisa Kitinoja
The Postharvest Education Foundation
PO Box 38, La Pine, Oregon 97739 USA
Website homepage: www.postharvest.org
Mobile phone: (916) 708-7218
Does sustainable intensification imply a particular system or philosophy of agriculture? What about the ‘more food’ issue – how much more, what kind of food, produced where and for whom? How much weight does one attach to the ‘sustainable’ as opposed to the ‘intensification’ part? And what happens when ethical concerns such as animal welfare are added to the mix?
It’s not surprising that people have interpreted ‘sustainable intensification’ in different ways. Some have endorsed it because they see it as equivalent with a system of production that already exists; others reject it for exactly same reasons. And many still argue that sustainable intensification is quite simply oxymoronic – the two words in the phrase are inherently incompatible.
Finally, there are some of us who see it as an aspiration of what needs to be achieved – a goal rather than a particular state of play.
First is that increases in food production are necessary but not sufficient. Many observers rightly point out that we already have enough food in the world to feed everyone – and yet people go hungry. They say that throwing more food at the issue is not going to solve what is at heart an economic and political problem: people are food insecure because of unbalanced power structures, because they cannot afford or access food or the necessary inputs for the means of production, because the shift towards increasingly resource intensive diets diverts essential resources from poor people, and because food losses and waste – the consequences of poverty on the one hand (poor infrastructure) and wealth (careless attitudes to food) on the other – mean that food produced goes uneaten. These problems contribute not only to food insecurity in all its forms but also to enormous environmental problems.
We agree. We emphasise that measures to sustainably intensify food production must be situated within a wider framework for action on food security. We need to see policy makers make concerted efforts to improve fairness and equity in the food system, to reduce food losses and waste and to moderate the growing demand for resource intensive foods such as meat and dairy products.
Nevertheless, we maintain that some more food will still be needed. With an anticipated population of 9-10 billion on the planet by 2050 it is simply too risky to assume that any one set of approaches will suffice. Inertia, time lags and ineptitudes in the policy making process make it inevitable that supply will need to increase. This doesn’t mean that we need to increase food by a certain specified amount, nor that more food needs to be produced everywhere: indeed in some areas the need to improve sustainability means that yield reductions will be needed.
I think food losses have to be separated into two main parts: they are pre-harvest and post harvest losses.
Pre-harvest Loss: this loss occurs mostly due to insects, diseases, weeds or other pest animals. For example, in Bhutan pre-harvest losses to insects and diseases is estimated to be about 10 to 20 %' and losses to weeds about 20-30%. But this figures are just estimate and varies widely depending on the crops, environment and stress problems. Another factor, that causes preharvest losses are untimely rainfall, nutrient stress and extreme temperatures. For instance, loss of potato in Bhutan to early spring frost in some years is almost 100% in high altitude; and there are 100% failure of crop when spring rain is absent in potato growing area. Preharvest loss of rice to broad leaved weeds (Potomegaton distinctus) in Bhutan is about 30% regardless of where rice is grown.
Post harvest losses: these losses occur in store, processing and milling plants, in cooking and while eating. Storage loss of potato to storage insects such as Potato tuber moth in Bhutan is estimated to be about 10-15%; maize storage loss to insects in warmer parts of Bhutan is more than 30%. Milling loss of rice when it is not properly dried is about 20% in Bhutan. Many families in Bhutan waste food while cooking and eating. They tend to cook more than required and ultimately ends up as waste.
What could be done: for preharvest losses and post harvest losses to fungus and insects, technological solutions are there, but requires implementation with adequate resources especially in developing country like Bhutan. while losses in cooking and eating habits need change of mind set and attitude of people which to my mind is the most difficult part. People do not easily give up bad habits and no amount of persuasion or policy measures can change people's habit. It has to come with education and realization. Therefore, more than a technical solution to food losses people's education and awareness are some of the most important measures to be considered.
Thinlay
Bhutan
As manager of a small fruit farm, and as head of environmental regional office, I have experienced and witness the waste and discard of first class fruits for the lack of adequate commercialization channels.
SEMARNAT, office of environmental affairs in Mexico has community projects to promote familly orchards and vegetable gardens. The projects are adopted by the community, and most families at any locality where they are implemented, are very successful at producing, but when production is at its peak you can see lines of vendors with their products and no oneto buy as everybodyin the locality produces the same.
These communities are usually a few hours from larger population centers where the products could be sold. It is necessary to promote the creation of collecting, storing and distribution mechanisms.
"How to measure Food Losses and Waste (FLW)?"
To measure food waste, one must define what is considered edible and non-edible food, which varies greatly from country to country.
Solution:
It's a good idea to create a Food Waste Matrix, where similar types of edible and non-edible foods are gathered into Country Groups, so the definitions of types edible and non-edible foods can vary from Country Group to Country Group.
This activity is now closed. Please contact [email protected] for any further information.