If you want to know how much food the world wastes, the internet is your friend.

It can tell you about the farm in the United States (US) that dumps at least a quarter of its potatoes for being too big, too small, too ugly or the “wrong” colour. Or about how food waste is responsible for 8% of all pollution.

Staying in the US, because it is a well-monitored microcosm of a global problem, as well as home to the world’s biggest garbage mountain, food manufacturers generate 55 000 tonnes of waste a day by trimming off edible skin, fat, crusts and peels.

Imagine being aboard the International Space Station and watching trillions of dollars being sucked into orbit every year by a sinister alien invader seeking to break the back of Earth’s economy: that’s what food waste does.

Even in Africa, home to many of the world’s hungriest people, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says the amount of food wasted could feed an additional 300 million people.

Read the full article on farmingportal.co.za