Sharqia, Egypt. Around one-third of all food for human consumption is lost or wasted.
© FAO/Heba Khamis

The paradox of hunger and food loss and waste

Food loss and waste stands in tragic contrast to widespread hunger and malnutrition.

Some facts and figures:

About one-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted between processing, storage, transportation, distribution and consumption.
If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
Lack of infrastructure, inadequate storage facilities, and inappropriate transportation (i.e. absence of cold storage) are the main causes of post-harvest losses.
Many countries lack access to energy, which results in increased food losses, limited capacity to process food, and restrictions for farmers looking to boost their incomes.
Malnutrition affects one in three people globally, through chronic hunger, micronutrient deficiency, child stunting, overweight and adult obesity.
Beyond the cost in human suffering, the impact of malnutrition in all its forms is estimated to cost the global economy USD 3.5 trillion each year.

Preventing food loss and waste

With household waste the largest source of food waste worldwide, raising awareness and driving consumer behavioural change is critical. FAO is part of the Food is Never Waste coalition, which encourages countries to share experiences and create new solutions to reduce the phenomenon.

FAO Green Cities Initiative

In the markets of Nairobi, unsold, spoiled or decaying fruit and vegetables are usually abandoned, polluting the streets and burdening waste collection systems. Estimates suggest that up to 40 percent of Kenya’s food is lost after leaving the farm and before it is bought by consumers, which in turn contributes to food insecurity.

To address this, under the FAO Green Cities Initiative launched in 2020, Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority has trained 100 market operators in waste management, from composting techniques to using biogas digesters to convert food waste into fuel.

The GCI targets cities of all sizes, collaborating closely with mayors and local authorities, and providing technical guidance and training to improve the urban and peri-urban environment. FAO expects as many as 1 000 cities to join the initiative by 2030.

Learn more about urban transformation

Global Waste Initiative 50 by 2050

FAO supported the COP27 Presidency in the Global Waste Initiative 50 by 2050, a holistic coalition aiming to treat and recycle at least 50 percent of the solid waste produced in Africa by the middle of the century, including reducing food loss and waste.

FAO has separately called on governments, companies, institutions and individuals to pledge to align their action agendas, halve food waste by 2030 and reduce food losses by at least 25 percent.

Enhancing health and nutrition

It has been estimated that investing USD 1 in nutrition results in a USD 16 return by strengthening our immune systems; cutting the risk of chronic disease; improving productivity; and, more broadly, boosting our ability to support economically vibrant societies and expanding gross domestic product (GDP).

Climate change affects access to nutritious foods, by putting stress on natural resources such as water and soils needed for food production and healthy diets. It reduces yields as well as the level of nutrients in crops. Meanwhile, more frequent extreme weather events increase food loss and decrease price stability, further restricting access to healthy diets, especially for the most vulnerable.

Bioeconomy, a FAO strategic priority, addresses societal challenges such as food and nutrition security, food loss and waste, and dependence on fossil fuels. A bioeconomy is an economy based on the sustainable and circular use and conservation of biological resources and processes. These resources and processes provide food, feed and bio-based products and services, and have major potential to build resilience to climate change.

The bioeconomy embraces biotechnology and bio-innovations to make the most of biomass, including by making bio-based plastics and textiles from agricultural residues. While bio-based plastics should be considered within individual contexts, they can be a positive investment, creating jobs, helping communities to be self-sustaining and reducing the carbon impact of packaged products.

FAO provides policy guidance and technical support to assist policymakers in establishing and implementing national and regional strategies, action plans, and programmes to develop a sustainable and circular bioeconomy, in line with the SDGs, the Paris Agreement and other multilateral environmental agreements.

Promoting healthy diets

FAO is supporting its Members to eradicate all forms of malnutrition, promote healthy diets and prevent chronic diseases. FAO's food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) provide country-specific recommendations on what constitutes a healthy diet. The guidelines are rooted in sound evidence and have spurred a global FBDG Repository.

FBDGs contain advice on foods, food groups and dietary patterns, and sometimes factors such as eating modes (family meals, conviviality) and food safety. FAO has been working with experts and partners since 2019 to update the methodology for developing and implementing FBDGs. The new “food system-based dietary guidelines” (FSBDGs) methodology is anchored, as its name suggests, in a food systems approach, which considers various aspects of sustainability in addition to health and nutrition.

Browse 100+ dietary guidelines

FSBDGs can be used to guide policies across agrifood systems. Agriculture-related policies include subsidies, the promotion of particular crops, or investment in specific crops; food environment policies include the restriction or promotion of specific foods.

FSBDGs also lay the groundwork for programmes that support healthy diets from sustainable agrifood systems for healthy people and a healthy planet. To help trigger the transformative processes that could deliver these goals, an Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN) was developed by the COP27 Presidency, in partnership with FAO alongside the World Health Organization (WHO), and other UN agencies and partners such as the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.

Required citation:
FAO. 2023. Agrifood solutions to climate change – FAO's work to tackle the climate crisis. Rome https://doi.org/10.4060/cc8055en

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