Food waste

Did you know that approximately 1/3, or 1.3 billion tons, of the food produced on our planet is wasted every year? Of all categories, fruits and vegetables make up 45% of that number, according to studies by the FAO .

Why can we afford to produce so much food for which farmers receive no return?

This is due to the fact that we have learned to produce food at a very low cost. Furthermore, farmers' production is not standardized, regulated, or quantified like other industrial products, and therefore, unexpected factors such as weather, disease, or insects will cause farmers to double their production in order to meet the quantities required by their contracts. The ethical arguments behind this volume of food waste are endless, but the problems don't end there.

Intensive production releases the equivalent of 3.3 gigantones of CO2 into the atmosphere.

This calculation does not account for emissions related to land-use changes, which would increase the number by 20% to 40%, a higher value than the emissions allowed in any country in the world except China and the United States. In Europe, there is an unjustifiable relationship between economic development and the level of food waste, with more than 89 million tons of food being wasted every year.

The consequences, as we know, are disastrous. The accumulation of waste, soil depletion, increased use of fertilizers, carbon emissions linked to the cost of long-distance shipping—these are some of the concepts that are already familiar to us all. We already know that seasonality and product location are important aspects in reducing emissions linked to agriculture, but they may not be enough to truly reduce food waste.

Is it possible to change our habits?

We are visual creatures, and developers know this; but in the world of fruits and vegetables, as in everything in life, perfection is not always measured in terms of symmetry and uniform shapes. Some socializations in our lives are intrinsic to our growth, because it is as children that we create our ideas and concepts about what is or is not a normal appearance.

The complex nature of behaviors related to food waste has been extensively studied by scientists, but the most likely social argument is simpler than we imagine. Post-war food rationing (which existed virtually throughout Europe at the end of the last century) didn't leave us much room for nitpicking, but it did increase food production in the following years.

However, all is not lost, because what makes the difference between before and after is the knowledge we have today. Today, with awareness of the problems of food waste, environmental and social issues, and the number of people who go hungry on our planet, the choice is simple: to abandon preconceived ideas and become part of a world where all food is seen as equal!