FAO leads campaign on resource conservation in food supply chain

BY MIKE OCHONMA

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is leading an online campaign to raise awareness of resource conservation among actors in the food supply chain, particularly in Africa where the war in Ukraine is undermining people’s food supplies.

The virtual campaign, launched jointly by the FAO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), highlights the urgent need to reduce food waste to prevent food insecurity.

The initiative, which mobilises the world’s producers and consumers, will help improve food systems and protect the climate. It will also contribute to the implementation of the 12th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 12) on sustainable production and consumption.

“In middle-income countries, we each waste an average of 74 kilograms a year. We could feed 1.26 billion hungry people through circular practices, for example, lost and wasted food can be turned into compost,” says Inger Andersen, UNEP’s executive director.

According to the FAO, 30 percent of the world’s cereals are thrown away, 50 percent of tubers, fruits and vegetables, 20 percent of oilseeds, meat and dairy products, and 35 percent of fish. This amounts to 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere each year as the climate crisis increasingly threatens livelihoods in East Africa.