The FAO estimates the annual economic, social and environmental costs of food waste to be 2.6 trillion USD.

Saving food and preventing waste have been central concerns for most of human history—for many a matter of sheer survival, as it is today. So, how did we end up here, wasting a third of the food we produce globally? This is a story of how we collectively lost our way in how we value, preserve, transform and enjoy food.

In the global economic expansion that followed WWII, employment and wages rose. 

In the food industry, innovations in agricultural machinery, storage, food processing and transportation vastly increased efficiency and lowered the costs of production. 

Food waste was a victim of the economy’s success: as food cost less, and people had more to spend, food waste grew. Whereas in 1901 an American household spent just over two-fifths of their net income on food. About 100 years later, this figure had dropped to one-fifteenth of a household’s income being spent on food. With it, the financial incentives for people to save and preserve food deteriorated. 

Whereas in 1901 an American household spent just over two-fifths of their net income on food. About 100 years later, this figure had dropped to one-fifteenth of a household’s income being spent on food.

With such a bounty of food on offer, retailers began to enforce stringent aesthetic standards on the food they bought and sold. For retailers, overstocking was preferable to the risk of under supplying customers, and so food products past their prime would be binned. 

Innovations in packaging meant that food products could be stored for longer periods, and transported further distances. But it also meant customers could no longer feel or see products as before. Enter the rise of ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ date stamping, a practice so inconsistent that by the 1970s there were more than 50 different labelling systems. For safety conscious customers, food that had not gone ‘off’ would be discarded due to conservative date stamping by producers and retailers. 

Convenience grew to be a high priority for consumers, with ready-to-eat meals and dining out becoming a norm. The accompanying affordability and ease of access to prepared meals further reduced consumers’ concerns for food waste.

“The general society is so far away from the production of food that you get in a supermarket. You forget that this ready meal or that bowl of soup came all from a field - farmers taking it in, worried about the rain one month and whether it's going to be too hot the next. You forget that food is natural.

And when it's packaged up so beautifully, it's hard to relate to, that something comes in seasons, it's governed by weather, and all of those things that we need to make sure that farming and our food system is something that serves our planet as well.‍

- Jenny Costa, Rubies in the Rubble

"The general society is so far away from the production of food that you get in a supermarket..."

So, our problem of food waste has been decades in the making. In higher-income countries, while many people still struggle with food insecurity, the accessibility and relative affordability of food has created a perfect storm of consumption and waste as the value we place on food has dropped.

From an economic perspective, the inefficiency of food production globally is mind-boggling. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that the financial cost of wasted food amounts to about USD 1 trillion each year.

Over and above the USD 1 trillion figure, the FAO puts environmental costs of food waste each year at an equivalent of USD 700 billion, and social costs at an equivalent of USD 900 billion.

Today, landfills are still a common method of waste management. In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that food waste represents close to a quarter of what goes into landfills, at 35.3 million tons in a year. In Australia, the government reports that 7.3 million tons of food is wasted each year, of which just over two-fifths ends up in landfill.

When food goes into landfill, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. For each ton of food in the landfill, 1.9 tons of greenhouse gases (CO2 equivalent) are emitted. 

Aside from that, along with the thrown food goes all of the energy, emissions, water, land use and human effort that went into its production, harvesting, packaging, storage and transport. 

“If you think about the challenges of the 21st century in relation to food, the United Nations estimates that we need to produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed a rising population…"

 - Bob Gordon, Zero Carbon Forum

So, as you can see, our current food system is economically inefficient and environmentally unsustainable. 

The good news is, there are tried and true solutions available to businesses that are producing food waste, plus some emerging technological applications to help with historically hard-to-manage food waste.

For more, see our in-depth research report on the problem of food waste and what businesses can do about it.