Junguo Liu and colleagues point out that food waste is a global problem with an estimated one-third to one-half of food produced worldwide being lost or wasted from farm to fork. Estimates suggest that the United States wastes about 40 percent of food crops. The problem is especially acute in China. With only 6 percent of the world's total water resources and barely 9 percent of the arable land, China nevertheless must feed 21 percent of the world's population. Liu's team set out to document loss and waste of food as a basis for developing policies that could help sustain the food supply in the future.

They found that about 19 percent of rice, wheat and other grain in China is lost or wasted, with consumer waste accounting for the largest portion, 7 percent. The overall loss meant the waste of an estimated 177 billion cubic yards of water used to produce food grown but never eaten -- a volume equal to the amount of water Canadian farmers use to grow all their crops. And it meant the waste of 64 million acres of cropland sown and harvested in vain. Liu and colleagues recommended several strategies, including raising public awareness, improving storage systems, mechanizing the harvest of grains and putting in place monitoring programs to track food waste with more precision.

The authors acknowledge funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Special Fund for Forestry Scientific Research in the Public Interest, the Organization Department of the Central Committee, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and Nestlé.

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Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Junguo Liu, Jan Lundqvist, Josh Weinberg, Josephine Gustafsson. Food Losses and Waste in China and Their Implication for Water and Land. Environmental Science & Technology, 2013; 130827135549000 DOI: 10.1021/es401426b