In the United States, 30% of all food is thrown away each year. In addition, around half of the water used to produce this food also goes to waste.
Losses throughout the entire agricultural, retail and domestic system in the U.S. amount to around US$95 billion a year.
The lost or wasted food in Latin America could feed 300 million people.
In the UK, households waste an estimated 6.7 million tonnes of food every year, around one-third of the 21.7 million tonnes purchased.
Most food waste is avoidable and could have been eaten had it been better managed.
The food currently wasted in Europe could feed 200 million people.
In many African countries, the post-harvest losses of food cereals are estimated at 25% of the total crop harvested. For some crops such as fruits, vegetables, and root crops, post-harvest losses can reach 50%.
The food currently lost in Africa could feed 300 million people.
In China, 50 million tonnes of grain annually are wasted. This accounts for one-tenth of the country's total grain output.
It is also estimated that enough food to feed 200 million people, about one-sixth of the country's population, goes to waste annually.
Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year - approximately 1.3 billion tonnes - gets lost or wasted.
Food losses and waste amount to roughly US$ 680 billion in industrialized countries and US$ 310 billion in developing countries.
Industrialized and developing countries dissipate roughly the same quantities of food - respectively 670 and 630 million tonnes.
In developing countries, food waste occurs mainly at the early stages of the food value chain whereas in medium and high-income countries, food is wasted mainly at the later stages in the supply chain.
A few days ago, I shared my plans for writing more over the coming year. However, I didn't explain why I made these plans.
I think we should be talking more about solutions to climate change and how tackling climate change can improve lives today.
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I want to be proactive:
Writing more and engaging more with others is in my control. Some might ridicule my writing and ideas, but others might find them interesting and perhaps inspire them to take action themselves.
We need to begin with the end in mind.
I think this has been missing in the discussions about climate change. There is no doubt that a +2.0C world would lead to more human suffering and deaths. However, this doesn't need to be our future; renewable's can give us clean air today.