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

Why can we afford to produce so much food that farmers get no return for?

This is because we have learned to produce food at a very low cost. Furthermore, farmers’ production is not standardized, standardized or quantified like other industrial products, and therefore unexpected factors such as weather, disease or insects will force 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 do not end there.

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

This calculation does not take into account emissions from land-use change, which would increase the figure by 20% to 40%, higher than the emissions permitted 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 tonnes 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 are some of the concepts that are already familiar to us all. By now, we already know that seasonality and location of products are important aspects in reducing emissions linked to agriculture, but they may not be enough to actually reduce food waste.

Is it possible to change our habits?

We are visual creatures and producers 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 and is not a normal appearance.

The complex nature of food waste behaviors has been extensively studied by scientists, but the likely social argument is simpler than we might think. The post-war food rationalization (which occurred virtually everywhere in Europe at the end of the last century) didn’t leave us much room for fussiness, but it did increase food production in the years that followed.

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. Let go of preconceived ideas and be part of a world where all food is seen equally!