Food Wastage & Hunger

In the World Today:

• We produce enough food to feed everyoneBUT

1 in 7 are facing starvation.

• 1 in 3 kilograms of food produced goes to waste.

Hunger

• We don’t think of it as being a problem in Australia

BUT, each year in Australia;

• 1 in 10 people in require food relief2 million people

Half of those are children

87.5% of people think it is important to tackle hunger in Australia

Do you?

Who Needs Food Relief?• 105,000

people are currently homeless• 2.2 million

Australians live in poverty• 10.9%

of children live in poverty• 1 in 4

pensioners live in or close to poverty

Australia: the lucky country?

• We produce enough food to feed 60 million people annually.

• We are a food secure nation, however, over 5% of Australians experience personal food insecurity

Factors that contribute

• Financial stress• Unemployment• Illness• Minimal access to transport• Lack of education about food and nutrition• Geographical isolation• Homelessness

Food Insecurity & Health

• Only 10% of Australians consume enough vegetables, living on a tight budget makes this more challenging

• Your risk of obesity is 20%-40% higher if you have an insecure food supply.

• Disadvantaged communities have up to 2.5 times the exposure to fast food outlets.

What is Food Waste?

• 47% of waste in landfill is food & green organic waste.

• Food waste results from preparing and cooking food. • It is the food we throw in the bin, we feed to our pets

or toss in the compost or worm farm. • It's the food we bought to eat but then threw away.

Food WasteThere are two types of food waste: 'avoidable' and 'unavoidable' food waste.• Avoidable: includes food that:

– gets wasted because we buy more than we need – is out of date before we use it – gets wasted because we cook more than we need.

• Unavoidable: food waste that can not usually be eaten. It is the food waste we can not really do anything further with apart from composting it or putting it in the bin.

e.g. pineapple skins, tea bags and fruit and vegetable peelings.

Positive News

Since 2005, Second Bite’s fresh food rescue has ensured:• Food waste is sent to farms to feed animals

instead of going to landfill• Over 2,000,000kgs of fresh food redistributed,

saving 168 million litres of water• Saving 2.7million kilograms of Carbon Dioxide

= taking 594 cars off the road for a year.

Why is food wasted?

Brainstorm

Food waste in Australian landfills is the second largest source of methane.

Food Waste and the Environment

Every kilogram of food that ends up in landfill:• Emits harmful gas• Wastes resources required to grow and

transport food• Pollutes waterways

Dumping a kilogram of beef means wasting the 50,000 litres of water used in its production.

Throwing out a kilo of white rice will waste 2,385 litres.

If less food were wasted, less land, water and energy would be needed across the entire

value chain.

Why is food wasted?Consumers demand perfection:

Nearly a third of the crop is graded out because they’re too small or they have minor blemishes.

In Queensland, research revealed that 60,000 tonnes of bananas don’t even make it past the farm gate every year.

Food Wastage in Each State

What can YOU do to reduce YOUR food waste at home?

What can YOU do to reduce YOUR food waste at home?

• Preserve foods: create meals that can be frozen, make jams, sauces & pickles etc

• Don’t buy more than you need: plan meals, minimise packaging, write shopping lists.

• Get a vegie patch, compost or worm farm.• Educate yourself• Support businesses that participate in food-

rescue programs (eg. Foodbank, Second Bite).