Cleaner Greener China

Treehugger has highlighted in their Study Finds Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted a topic that typically does not hits the radar screen as it is rarely studied or put into context.

According to a new policy brief issued by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Stockholm International Water Institute and the International Water Management Institute, huge amounts of food — close to half of all food produced worldwide — are wasted after production.

a HUGE problem for many reasons, this is a topic I covered last year on All Roads through my post Fixing China’s Food Safety Issues will Require a $100 Billion.

Just looking at process of delivering produce to market in China, there are several main areas that see high levels of waste and those areas have larger impacts.

1. Food inflation as the supply is effectively reduced at market
2. Reduced access to clean water as wasted food equals wasted water, and wasted food also equates to higher chemical contamination rates

Unfortunately, as the AT Kearney report suggests, it is going to take a lot of resources to create a cold storage infrastructure that would have the greatest systematic impact.   In the meantime though, simple things like crating produce, reducing stock levels, and producing in areas closer to the market.

China is a country that still has a lot of wet markets, and where I think little changes in the basic systems ould bring real gains.  The problem is changing habits, and creating a more efficient market system that takes some basic steps towards reducing waste.
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Policies and Issues food