Far-reaching impact of food wastage

Photo: 123rf.com

THE World Food Programme (WFP) reported as many as 828 million people in the world go to bed hungry every night while the number of those facing acute food insecurity has hit the 345 million mark.

In 2019, 900,000 Malaysians did not have enough food to eat every day, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

In the same year, the World Bank found that three out of 10 Malaysians did not have enough money to buy food.

And yet Malaysians waste 16,688 tonnes of food every day. That’s enough to fill one-and-a-half Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Of this total, 3,000 tonnes are considered still edible.

According to SWCorp (Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation), this amount is enough to feed 12 million people three times a day.

The amount of food wasted every day increases by 15% to 20% during festive occasions.

These are telling statistics. But we do not need statistics to tell us what we are doing is wrong.

We tend to overfill our plates from the buffet table in hotels and other places. Why do we do this when we know a sizeable portion will not be consumed?

Recently, I watched a video of a mile-long queue of people waiting for food handouts.

It was reported in a local English daily a few days ago that the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry was considering ways to overcome the problem of food wastage.

While that is a welcome move, the question is why can’t it act now, based on facts and solutions that are already available?

We all know what is wrong, and we also know what is the right thing to do. So why don’t we just do it?

Food wastage is also a moral and ethical issue. And it has far-reaching social, environmental and economic impacts.

When food is wasted, all the resources that went into producing, processing, packaging and transporting it are also wasted.

Wasting food also means wasting money. Consumers, businesses and governments bear all the costs of wasted food, including the cost of production, transport and disposal.

By reducing food wastage, we help to conserve resources. Producing food requires a vast amount of water, land, energy and fertilisers.

Everyone has a role to play in reducing food wastage.

Let’s all do our part and help each other in these challenging times.

TAN SRI LEE LAM THYE

Kuala Lumpur