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Advancing Food Waste Reduction: from Awareness to Research and Action.

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It's a staggering figure, but about one-third of all food produced for human consumption around the world goes to waste. Just as we can strive to make our food production more friendly to the planet, we can also reduce the amount of food we throw out. That includes edible food that never reaches the shops, unsold or uneaten food in restaurants, or food we discard at home. Globally, the impacts of food waste are astounding. It contributes greenhouse gas emissions, uses freshwater that we can ill afford to sacrifice, costs millions of farm animals their lives and accounts for billions of dollars’ worth of human labour, not to mention the vast forests cut down and wetlands drained to produce food that is never eaten, or the mountains of fertiliser and pesticides applied for no purpose.While waste occurs throughout the food value chain, roughly two-thirds of food waste is generated in consumer-facing businesses (e.g. restaurants and retail outlets) or in the home. Most of us only have ...

Focus on the SDG Target 12.3 on Food loss and waste.

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  In 2015, countries from around the world adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty and hunger, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all populations and generations. One target within these goals is SDG 12.3 , which calls for per-capita reductions of food loss and waste by 50 percent globally. With five years remaining before 2030, the world is not on track to achieve SDG 12.3 . Global progress on reducing food loss and waste has not accelerated to the point needed to achieve this ambitious target—either from companies or countries. With fewer than five years left, time is running out. There are bright spots of action, though. Food loss and waste is rising on the political agenda, binding targets are moving closer to being enacted in many regions, and countries are increasingly addressing the issue from an entire supply chain perspective. Significantly, Japan has become the first country to cut food loss and waste in half compared to its base year a...

How much progress has been made in relation to SDG 12.3?

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  It has been 10 years since the launch of the SDGs. So how much progress has been made in relation to SDG 12.3? Is the world on track, or is the world behind?  In the 2017 edition of this progress report, the authors introduced a “road map” of milestones (grouped into three-year segments) based on Champions 12.3’s “Target-Measure-Act” approach (Box 1) (Lipinski et al. 2017).  This road map is designed to track global progress by governments and businesses toward achieving SDG 12.3 and provides an assessment of where progress is sufficient or insufficient relative to the Target-Measure-Act approach. We most recently assessed these milestones in the 2022 edition of the report, in which, globally, companies were overall found to be making more progress than national governments (Lipinski 2022). Our analysis, however, found that the global rate of progress on food loss and waste reduction was insufficient to achieve SDG 12.3 . This assessment largely holds true for the mos...

How the world can build on existing progress while still bringing in those who have yet to tackle this issue head on?

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  The world is not on track to achieve SDG 12.3 , but there is encouraging progress that shows what is possible. More countries and companies need to radically rethink their approach to this issue, especially as the SDG target year of 2030 approaches . These recommendations elaborate on how the world can build on existing progress while still bringing in those who have yet to tackle this issue head on: Countries need to commit to food loss and waste reduction in new Nationally Determined Contributions, National Adaptation Plans, and related strategies on food systems and resilience . Companies should explore opportunities for food loss and waste reduction across the entire supply chain and strengthen collaboration among businesses . Finance organizations need to increase focus on foodloss and waste as an issue and seek to better understand the financial business case for action . Philanthropic organizations need to invest in foodloss and waste reduction programs . Change the narr...

Companies should explore opportunities for food loss and waste reduction across the entire supply chain and strengthen collaboration among businesses.

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  Reducing food waste requires coordination among stakeholders across the entire supply chain , yet many food loss andwaste reduction actions focus narrowly on just one stage of the food supply chain . This approach fails to take into account the way that different stages of the supply chain interact. Food waste pacts and industry-facing initiatives focused on action provide opportunities for sharing best practices and developing solutions that span the supply chain. Companies should adopt the Target-Measure-Act approach in their own operations while contributing to larger collaborations and scaling action.

Countries need to commit to food loss and waste reduction.

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  Countries need to commit to food loss and waste reduction in new Nationally Determined Contributions , National Adaptation Plans , and related strategies on food systems and resilience . This commitment should be translated into meaningful policy measures. Countries including Chile, Colombia and the UK have included FLW in their revised NDCs . Countries such as Japan and Spain have demonstrated how to incorporate food loss and waste into strategies across the supply chain , and the African Union and European Union have shown that regional bodies can motivate action among their member states. More countries and regional bodies need to follow suit and back up their commitments with dedicated resources while strengthening data gathering and sharing best practices and key findings .

Finance organizations need to better understand the financial business case for action.

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  Finance organizations need to increase focus on food loss and waste as an issue and seek to better understand the financial business case for action. Finance providers can design context-specific financial products that overcome barriers while also encouraging policy signals to scale investments. At the same time, private sector companies can leverage their farmer and intermediary networks to help aggregate smallholders into bankable groups, use long-term offtake agreements that both secure reliable supply and help farmers access credit, and finance or co-finance food loss and waste solutions that strengthen their own supply chains.