food wastage

This article in the Agronomy for Sustainable Development Journal review knowledge on urban versus conventional agriculture. Urban agriculture appears to be a means to combat the environmental pressure of increasing urbanization and food demand. However, there is hitherto limited knowledge of the efficiency and scaling up of practices of urban farming. The authors review the claims on urban agriculture’s comparative performance relative to conventional food production. »

This article employs a calorie-based approach to determine which feed calories do compete with human consumption for crop use and considers to what extent alternative scenarios could have reduced this competition between food and feed. Animal production exerts significant demands on land, water and food resources. However, demand for animal source foods has more than tripled over the past 50 years and the livestock sector has transitioned towards more intensive and concentrated production systems. »

In the December newsletter, we present various reports on events, new studies and expert opinions developed within the Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP) in the last months. In addition to the articles shown in the newsletter, we refer directly to the website for updated sections. »

This report elaborates on the reasons for large amount of food waste in Kenya’s horticulture sector. It reveals that Kenyan farmers are being subjected to unfair trading practices such as last minute cancellation of orders and unnecessarily strict cosmetic standards by European retail buyers resulting in massive amounts of food waste. The study finds that retailer practices, especially cosmetic standards for produce and order cancellations, are resulting in 45% of produce in Kenyan horticultural supply chains being rejected before shipment. »

This policy-oriented report presents a synthesis of existing evidence about the causes of food losses and waste and suggests action to reduce them in order to improve food and nutrition security and the sustainability of food systems. It argues that successful reduction of food losses and waste will save resources and has the potential to improve food security and nutrition, goals shared with the Zero Hunger Challenge and the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. »

The international conference No More Food to Waste – Global action to stop food losses and food waste – was held in The Hague, the Netherlands from June 16-19, 2015. It brought together global leaders from international agencies, businesses, investment groups, research institutions and civil society. During the symposium they could share their experiences and »