Jula Elena-Diana

T.I. Engleza-Germana, anul II

Food waste

Ladies and gentlemen,

Food waste is one of the biggest problems facing mankind today. According to a report
published by the World Bank, a huge amount of the food that we produce, almost one third of the
food produced for human consumption, is actually wasted. We may wonder: ‘How can we
simply let so much food be wasted when millions of people around the world go hungry every
day?’. In order to understand the problem better and to come up with some solutions, we need to
be aware of its causes and its effects, which are economic, social and environmental.
When it comes to food loss, it is mainly the agricultural industry to blame. In Africa, poor
food storage systems results in 20% of the continent’s grain to be wasted, resulting in the deaths
of millions of starving people. But, the situation is worse in developed nations, where most of the
food waste originates from retail companies. According to the FAO, industrialized nations waste
1.5 trillion pounds of food a year. However, this is not just about the industry. We are all food
wasters, too. Every day, I see people throwing their meals away everywhere: at restaurants, at
school, at home.
The consequences of wasting food are dreadful. Food waste is a large contributor to
world hunger, because there is not enough food for everybody. One in nine individuals suffer
from world hunger. Furthermore, according to FAO’s report estimates, the economic losses
associated with food wastage is about $750 billion dollars per annum. This amounts to the GDP
of a country such as Switzerland. But what about environmental costs in food waste? The food
produced and then later goes to waste is estimated to be equivalent to 3.3 billion tons
of greenhouse gas emission, accelerating the impacts of climate change.
Even though this problem seems to be insurmountable, there are some solutions which
may be our chance to save the lives of millions of people. Every long journey begins with small
steps and if we all start changing our habits, we can contribute to save our planet. These things
include altering our daily routine, like only buying food that we are actually going to eat in order
to minimize the food we waste daily.
While changing our daily dining habits is the easiest and most direct way to solve the
issue, there are a few extra steps that I strongly believe we all can take. There are many NGO’s
that work towards reducing food waste and eradicating world hunger, like The Hunger Project,
the World Food Program, and the Food and Agricultural Organization. By participating in their
many charity events and donating money, we can potentially save lives. Unfortunately, we
cannot change the ways of farmers and retail chains, but we can control how much food we
individually waste on the daily. So if we all unite and collaborate to cut down domestic food
waste, all the devastating statistics may change.
To sum up, we need to become aware of the fact that if we do not stop wasting food, then
the consequences of this problem will destroy us. We need to take action immediately, so we
 Jula Elena-Diana
T.I. Engleza-Germana, anul II

could start by simple steps such as minimizing our domestic food waste or donating to
organizations that strive to end world hunger.

Thank you !