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IL 50% DEL CIBO PRODOTTO AL MONDO VA SPRECATO
Il 50% del cibo
che produciamo va sprecato: una notizia inquietante che emerge
da un rapporto presentato a Stoccolma nel corso del World Water
Week.
La ricerca è stata condotta dallo Stockholm International Water
Institute, dallo UN Food and Agriculture Organization e
dall'International Water Management Institute.
Risulta che l'attuale crisi alimentare non è una crisi di
produzione bensì di spreco vero e proprio.
E non si tratta solo di cibo, ma anche di acqua, una risorsa
preziosa sprecata di pari passo agli alimenti.
Questo perché grandi quantità di acqua vengono utilizzate per la
produzione di cibo e se sprechiamo quest'ultimo, di conseguenza
sprechiamo anche essa.
Si calcola che solo negli Stati Uniti l'anno scorso siano stati
dilapidati 40 mila miliardi di litri di acqua, una quantità
sufficiente a produrre il 30% del cibo del paese e abbastanza da
soddisfare le necessità di 500 milioni di famiglie.
Mentre nei paesi poveri tra il 15 e il 35% del cibo viene
sprecato in fase di raccolta e tra il 15 e il 20% nelle fasi di
produzione, trasporto e immagazzinamento, nei paesi ricchi, lo
spreco si concentra soprattutto nel momento successivo
all'acquisto.
Il consiglio dei ricercatori è di dimezzare entro il 2025 lo
spreco di cibo. Fra le soluzioni proposte: migliorare l'utilizzo
dell'acqua, eliminare le nostre abitudini "sprecone" in fatto di
cibo e ottimizzare la produzione di alimenti.
provate a pensare quanta acqua, terra, lavoro o meglio
sfruttamento dell'uomo, pesticidi,litri di carburante e habitat
se ne vanno in malora per produrre questo 50% di sprechi!
e poi la chiamiamo " civiltà " dei consumi
Francesco
Leggi
Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is
Wasted
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Huge amounts of food are wasted after production. It is being
discarded in processing, destroyed and hence discarded during
transport, at supermarkets and in restaurant and domestic
kitchens. This wasted food is, obviously, also wasted water as
finds a policy brief released on August 22, 2008 at World Water
Week in Stockholm.
The brief written and compiled by the Stockholm International
Water Institute, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and
the International Water Management Institute shows that the
current food crisis is less a crisis of production than a crisis
of waste. Tossing food away is like leaving the tap running, the
authors say.
"More than enough food is produced to feed a healthy global
population. Distribution and access to food is a problem - many
are hungry, while at the same time many overeat," the brief
states. But, it says, "we are providing food to take care of not
only our necessary consumption but also our wasteful habits."
What we must not forget also is that there is, I am sure, still
the old food mountain and the stupidity, though no longer as
publicly reported as it once was, of actually forcing farmers to
dump food stuffs during either a glut or also because it is not
the right shape and size or has blemishes.
"As much as half of the water used to grow food globally may be
lost or wasted," says Dr. Charlotte de Fraiture, a researcher at
IWMI. "Curbing these losses and improving water productivity
provides win-win opportunities for farmers, business,
ecosystems, and the global hungry."
"An effective water-saving strategy requires that minimizing
food wastage is firmly placed on the political agenda," she
said.
In the United States, for instance, as much as 30 percent of
food, worth some US$48.3 billion, is thrown away. "That's like
leaving the tap running and pouring 40 trillion liters of water
into the garbage can - enough water to meet the household needs
of 500 million people," says the report.
The policy brief, "Saving Water: From Field to Fork - Curbing
Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain," calls on governments to
reduce by half, by 2025, the amount of food that is wasted after
it is grown and outlines attainable steps for this be achieved.
"Unless we change our practices, water will be a key constraint
to food production in the future," said Dr. Pasquale Steduto of
FAO.
Water losses accumulate as food is wasted before and after it
reaches the consumer.
In poorer countries, so the research found, a majority of
uneaten food is lost before it even has a chance to be consumed.
Depending on the crop, an estimated 15 to 35 percent of food may
be lost in the field, while another 10 to15 percent is discarded
during processing, transport and storage.
In richer countries, while production may be more efficient
waste is by far greater, so states the report. "People toss the
food they buy and all the resources used to grow, ship and
produce the food along with it."
As this wasted food rots in landfills it generates methane, a
gas that causes climate change and is 21 times more potent than
carbon dioxide.
With proper municipal composting facilities, however, this food
waste would not even need to go into landfill and if we would
permit the use of swill again, properly controlled and
monitored, for the feeding of pigs then most of that food waste
would be turned into calories and protein.
World Water Week was hosted by the Stockholm International Water
Institute, a policy institute that contributes to international
efforts to combat the world's escalating water crisis.
We must consider the one fact too in this wasted food, as it has
been stated, and that is the wasted water, in the form of
irrigation (and others), and this when water resources are
getting – or could be getting – scarcer due to changes in
climate and in rainfall patters.
As someone once said: the next war(s) will not be fought over
territory but over access to water resources; a case that always
was thus in countries such as Arabia, and such.
Water wars and skirmishes have been about in those places, as
well as in other countries, throughout the ages. In future,
however, it may actually not be a case of just a clan against
another or a rancher against another one; it could indeed be one
country against another over the perceived interference with
water supply and such.
Whether or not any difference can be made by us in the realm of
water resource management by not wasting food, with the
exception of the fact that the less food is wastes the less
there has to be grown and hence less water being used for
watering the plants, does not matter too much either; not
wasting food on its own should be enough incentive.
Further savings in the water department could be made if the
developed world at least – for I know that the quality of the
municipal water and other supplies in some countries out of that
realm are dubious – would stop the wasteful practice of drinking
bottled water. While a number of that stuff is tap water, which
may or not have been filtered and such, there are still many
brands that use well and spring water, and such extraction has a
bad effect on the water table and the general natural water
supply.
So, time we stopped wasting food and water...
© M Smith (Veshengro), August 2008
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