The Big Facts project provides peer-reviewed facts about climate change, agriculture and food security. It aims to serve as a credible resource for fact-checking. One topic covered is global food waste, which accounts for 6-10% of greenhouse gas emissions. High-income countries waste more food per person than low-income countries. Reducing losses throughout the supply chain, from production to consumption, could help address food insecurity and climate change.

1. HTTP://CCAFS.CGIAR.ORG/BIGFACTS/
FOOD SECURITY
food waste
Big Facts is a resource of the most up-to-date and robust facts relevant to the nexus of climate
change, agriculture and food security. It is intended to provide a credible and reliable platform
for fact checking amid the range of claims that appear in reports, advocacy materials and other
sources. Full sources are supplied for all facts and figures and all content has gone through a
process of peer review.
Big Facts is also an open-access resource. We encourage everyone to download, use and
share the facts and graphic images. We believe that by sharing knowledge we can aid the type
of interdisciplinary understanding and collaboration necessary for meeting the challenges posed
to agriculture and food security in the face of climate change.
The Big Facts project is led by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture
and Food Security (CCAFS). CCAFS is a strategic partnership of CGIAR and Future Earth,
led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). CCAFS brings together the
world’s best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science and
Earth System science, to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies and
tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture and food security.
We are well aware that this field is progressing rapidly, and that science is always open for
re-evaluation. We welcome your suggestions for improvements, updates and corrections at
ccafs@cgiar.org.
Acknowledgments
Project leaders: Simon Bager, Bruce Campbell, Lucy Holt Sonja Vermeulen
ABOUT BIG FACTS

2. HTTP://CCAFS.CGIAR.ORG/BIGFACTS/
Globally, roughly one-third of the food produced for human consumption, about 1.3 billion tonnes
per year, is lost or wasted (Gustavsson et al. 2011). Producing this much food accounts for 6–10%
of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions (Vermeulen et al. 2012).
People in Europe and North America waste 95–115 kg of food each year, compared with only 6–11
kg a year for people in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (Gustavsson et al. 2011).
The average carbon footprint of food wastage is about 500 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents
per person per year. Europe, North America, Oceania and industrial Asia have the highest per
capita carbon footprint of food wastage (approximately 700–900 kg of CO2 equivalents per person
per year), while sub-Saharan Africa has the smallest footprint per person (about 180 kg of CO2
equivalents) (FAO 2013a p. 22).
Food waste is a huge problem globally, but the underlying reasons differ between regions.
• Food waste in high-income countries is dominated by consumer waste.
• Developing countries have high losses at the post-harvest and processing stages because
of spoilage. Spoilage is high because of lack of modern transport and storage infrastructure,
and financial, managerial and technical limitations in difficult climatic conditions (Venkat 2011;
Gustavsson et al. 2011).
The total amount of food wasted by consumers in industrialized countries is nearly as high as the
total net food production in sub-Saharan Africa (FAO 2013b p. 295).
Some 19.0% ± 5.8% of grain is lost in China along the whole supply chain, with the largest losses
in the consumer segment (7.3% ± 4.8%). These food losses and waste in 2010 were estimated
to waste the equivalent of 135 ± 60 billion m3 of water, equivalent to the total amount of water
consumed in Canada. Such losses also imply that 26 ±11 million ha of land were used in vain,
equivalent to the total arable land of Mexico (Junguo et al. 2013 p. 10137).
FACTS
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food waste

3. HTTP://CCAFS.CGIAR.ORG/BIGFACTS/
The blue water footprint (i.e. the consumption of surface and groundwater resources) of food
wastage is about 250 km3, which is equivalent to the annual water discharge of the Volga River or
three times the volume of Lake Geneva (FAO 2013a p. 27).
A total of 1.4 billion ha of land—28% of the world’s agricultural area—is used annually to produce
food that is lost or wasted (FAO 2013a p. 37). This is equivalent to the areas of Canada and India
put together, and dwarfed globally only by the size of Russia (1.7 billion ha).
Food wastage costs food producers some USD 750 billion annually (FAO 2013a p. 55).
High-income regions and Latin America are responsible for about 80% of all meat waste (FAO
2013a p. 58).
Opportunities exist to reduce waste and losses in the supply chain. Technological options, including
investments into harvesting, processing and storage technologies would be most relevant to low
income settings where existing infrastructure is lacking. Public awareness campaigns and taxation
are the main methods for incentivising reductions in retail and consumer-related losses in high
income countries (Gustavsson et al., 2011).
FACTS
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food waste

4. HTTP://CCAFS.CGIAR.ORG/BIGFACTS/
[FAO] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2010.
FAOSTAT: food balance sheets. Rome: FAO. (Available from http://faostat3.
fao.org/faostat-gateway/go/to/home/E) (Accessed on 6 November 2013).
[FAO] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2013a. Food
wastage footprint. Impacts on natural resources. Summary report. Rome:
FAO (Available from http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3347e/i3347e.pdf)
(Accessed on 6 November 2013)
[FAO] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2013b. Cli-
mate-smart agriculture sourcebook. Rome: FAO. (Available from http://www.
fao.org/docrep/018/i3325e/i3325e.pdf) (Accessed on 6 November 2013)
Gustavsson J, Cederberg C, Sonesson U, van Otterdijk R, Meybeck A. 2011.
Global food losses and food waste. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organiza-
tion of the United Nations. (Available from http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_
upload/ags/publications/ GFL_web.pdf) (Accessed on 6 November 2013)
Gustavsson J, Cederberg C, Sonesson U, van Otterdijk R, Meybeck A. 2011.
Global food losses and food waste. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organiza-
tion of the United Nations. (Available from http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_
upload/ags/publications/ GFL_web.pdf) (Accessed on 6 November 2013)
Junguo L, Lundqvist J, Weinberg J, Gustafsson J. 2013. Food Losses and
waste in China and their implication for water and land. Environmental Sci-
ence & Technology 47: 10137−10144.
Venkat K. 2011. The climate change and economic impacts of food waste
in the United States. International Journal of Food System Dynamics
2(4):431–446.
Vermeulen SJ, Campbell BM, Ingram J SI. 2012. Climate change and
food systems. Annual Review of Environmental Resources 37:195–222.
(Available from http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-envi-
ron-020411-130608) (Accessed on 6 November 2013)
SOURCES & FURTHER READINGS
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