MAIZE IN UGANDA

FOOD WASTE

Did you know that every year about 3.1 billion tons of food is wasted (About 30% of the world agriculture land area is used to produce this food) and approximately 3.1 million children die of hunger?
These facts leave very many wondering how this could even be possible but one should never get surprised if he/she looks at things with a global mindset.
Food wasting is something that occurs in our day to day lives but who should we blame for all this much food that is wasted? Should we blame the governments or the general population at large?
Food wasting is linked to political, social and economic factors and by saying this everyone is a culprit.
 Food wasting occurs in different ways throught out whole supply chain of a food right from production to consumption. The highest rate of food wasting occurs in Europe, North America, Oceania, West and Central Asia and  North Africa respectively.
Africa has minimal food waste but with high amounts of food loses. "Food waste and food loss" are two different things. Africa's low rate of wasting food is logical, Agriculture in most of these countries is not yet upscale hence less food production, therefore, wasting food is not an option.
When we look at these developed countries, they have very many reasons for wasting food right from the laws placed by their governments concerning food right to the consumer demands and eating habits.
These governments provide subsidies to these food traders giving them room to waste food, for example, in the Netherlands, if you are a tomato trader and your tomatoes get physical damage and they can not be sold, these traders find it necessary to fully destroy the tomatoes since they will be compensated by the government for there loss than freely giving them out to for example restaurants and shelters for the homeless to make soups and other dishes.

Western countries have a big issue with the physical appearance of food, the Cosmetic beauty of food has led to a lot of food waste by primary producers. The pressure of food of the perfect food shapes and colors of food is reinforced by the consumers. When a lot of people go to the supermarkets, they are always so picky for about the right shape of the food they want to buy leaving out those so-called  "ugly foods" and as a food trader, your main objective is making a profit, therefore, the uniformity of your product is very important. Primary producers will then ensure they produce food with the acceptable physical traits by the general public, any food with different shapes will either be sold at a very small or destroyed despite the fact that they have the same nutritional value with those with the right shape.
Supermarkets are also very good at wasting food, Food labeling requires all food products to have both the manufacturing and expiry dates. A lot of supermarkets throw away food that is expired by date even though it is still in good condition to be eaten of which we can not blame them because they are trying to ensure safety for their clients. It could, however, be a good idea if they can often check their products for the expiry dates and sale them weeks prior to the expiry date at cheaper prices. It is also a good idea to use the First In, First Out (FIFO) concept while selling their goods to reduce wastes.
When it comes to food wasting at the consumer level, we have been guilty of throwing away food. This is right from the shopping addicts and simply taking a meal a snack. We can't deny food wasting at the consumer level is very hard to avoid, we at times order for a lot of food or perhaps get huge portions of food from restaurants we can't finish especially when we are extremely hunger. I still believe we have the power to minimise these wastes.
I can conclude this by saying, before you waste food, think of a number of resources that were used to produce this food and the impact the production of that particular product has held on on our planet.