Small actions can change the world
• 46% of the food that ends up in the bins corresponds to waste;
• Between 40% and 50% of food wasted worldwide are roots, fruits, nuts and vegetables. 20% are meat and dairy products;
• In Brazil, 14 million people suffer from hunger. The amount of wasted food could feed 11 million. In the world, 815 million people suffer from hunger.
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Those are data from 2017, published by the FAO, which has warned that, every year, 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted or lost during production in the world. The amount would be enough to feed about 2 billion people (42.5 million are hungry in Latin America and the Caribbean).
So, our attitude can make a lot of difference! Once, browsing around a super in Portugal, I saw a marketing campaign that I thought was great, simple and assertive: a basket with bananas released from the bunches (due to some failure in the production chain or the customers themselves), with an appeal to buyer awareness. Every time I go by there, there are bananas in the basket. Some days more, others less, but it’s never empty. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Knowing that our attitudes affect other people is one thing. Seeing the impact of that (as it did for me, looking at the basket and the message) is another. I really don’t like wasting food, I always think about people who don’t have enough to eat. So, seeing and knowing about actions that move towards a greater good is comforting!
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The UN’s 2030 Agenda defined in the Sustainable Development Agenda the goal of halving the world’s per capita waste by that year, and also reducing losses in production and supply chains. According to FAO, some food banks in Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Brazil and Mexico already collect food that would otherwise be discarded to redistribute, which is a great move! Save Food is another excellent example of good practice, as this global initiative, which is a partnership with the German company Messe Düsseldorf, carries out campaigns around the world. Each one doing what they can, everyone wins!