Waste not

“POPE FRANCIS has told the World Food Programme (WFP) there is nothing ‘obvious or self-evident’ about the shortage of food: it is, he said, ‘due to a selfish and wrong distribution of resources.’ Discarded food, he added, is ‘in a certain sense food that is stolen from the table of the poor and the starving.’…

“Extreme poverty, the Pope said, should be ‘de-naturalised’ – no longer seen as a given, but as something to be tackled by the increased commitment of United Nations member states…

“WFP’s Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin, welcomed the Pope as a ‘defender of the dignity of humanity.’ ‘The truth,’ she said, ‘is that the world possesses the knowledge, the capacity and skills’ to defeat hunger and malnutrition. What was needed, she argued, was ‘global public and political will.’”

I’m not much of a one for popes, but I kinda like this one, here quoted during a recent visit to the WFP offices in Rome.

And he’s right: the world currently produces enough food to fill all seven billion human bellies on this planet, and yet one in eight people goes to bed hungry. Here in South Africa, according to the 2012 South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, some 26% of households were “experiencing hunger”; 28.3% were “at risk of hunger”. The remaining 45.6% are food secure.

Why do so many go hungry if there’s enough food to go round? Well, there are lots of reasons, many of which overlap – war and conflict situations mean food pipelines get disrupted, for example; drought and extreme weather events wipe out crops; food prices are unstable, meaning that there are times when the poor simply can’t afford food.

But one of the things we could all do something about is this: “One third of all food produced (1.3 billion tons) is never consumed. This food wastage represents a missed opportunity to improve global food security in a world where one in eight is hungry.

“Producing this food also uses up precious natural resources that we need to feed the planet. Each year, food that is produced but not eaten guzzles up a volume of water equivalent to the annual flow of Russia's Volga River. Producing this food also adds 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, with consequences for the climate and, ultimately, for food production.”

One third! (And in the USA, it’s even worse, according to Jonathan Bloom, author of a shocking and enlightening book called American Wasteland, who uncovered the facts and says that in the States, it’s closer to half the food produced that’s wasted.)

Some of this loss needs a little investment, a little helping hand. For example, I met a woman farmer from Mozambique who farms land about 40 km from the nearest town. She produces piles of gorgeous tomatoes, brinjals and bell peppers. With no transport, she’s dependent on townspeople coming to her, and so is a price-taker. If she doesn’t sell, the fruits rot. With a small investment (a cool room powered by solar, for instance, or her own bakkie), that waste could be avoided – and her profits would be greater.

Some of the wastage is stupid stuff – like bananas rejected because they don’t curve just right, or apples dumped because of minor blemishes.

I know that Food Bank South Africa collects from suppliers and retailers, and delivers to non-profits who feed people in need – and it does a sterling job, but its reach stretches only so far. This year, as I keep banging on about, the need is already far, far greater. Keep an eye on PACSA’s Food Price Barometer if you want to know what food inflation really is:

· Year-on-year the PACSA food basket increased by R222.12 (13.3%) from R1 670.20 in May 2015 to R1 892.31 in May 2016.

· The cost of the PACSA Minimum Nutritional Food Basket for a family of 4 is R2 464.36.

· The cost of feeding a small child a diet complete in minimum nutrition is R556.72. For a boy of 14-18 years, an active man or a pregnant woman a diet complete in minimum nutrition is R709.20 per month.

(Would someone please give these figures to Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, who believes that R753 will cover “adequate food as well as additional non-food items” for a month?)

Concerned about the hungry people I see in West Rand townships, I asked a branch of a large grocery chain if they’d let a local non-profit have surplus fruit and veg that would otherwise be wasted. “We don’t do that anymore,” was the response.

Well, that’s a crying shame. This year, we should all be doing everything we can to fight hunger. The fallout – stunted children and desperate people – will come back to bite us if we don’t.

I call on all food retailers and individuals to find ways to reduce food waste; the resultant savings could be used to donate food to credible NPOs which help the hungry. (Community Led Animal Welfare, or CLAW, gets food parcels for the starving in West Rand townships from Sizani Foods – go to www.sizanifoods.com and you’ll find a ‘Donate a food parcel’ button that makes it dead easy!)

And remember that powerful statement: Food wastage is “in a certain sense food that is stolen from the table of the poor and the starving.”

*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter.