Never let good waste become a crisis: lessons for the Global South

As a global society, we waste a third – 1.3 billion metric tons – of the food that we produce every year. In a world where more than 820 million people are undernourished, this is clearly unacceptable. What’s more, the vast quantities of wasted food contribute enormously to climate change: if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

Target 12.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aims to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030. This target is particularly relevant for cities – where food waste by consumers and the retail sector is most widespread and where 68% of the world’s population is predicted to live by 2050.

Photo credit: Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/Getty Images