FOREWORD

Over the past quarter of a century, since the appearance in the 1960s of what has been called the Green Revolution, many writers and agri-food specialists throughout the world have addressed the problem of the losses occurring at various stages in the food chain or pipeline. The first World Food Conference, held in Rome in November 1974, when the African countries of the Sahel had started to suffer from drought and famine, proved an opportunity to draw attention to the gravity of the issue. A figure of 15 percent had been suggested for post-harvest losses, so that when people declared that a reduction in losses must be "a high priority", they were thinking primarily of the part of the chain known as the post-harvest system. Concern spread fast, giving rise to information that was sometimes alarmist, if not in fact inaccurate, as well as to some very pertinent views, such as those of D. Spurgeon in an essay entitled The Hidden Harvest (Ottawa, 1976) and M. Bourne in his aptly entitled study The Neglected Dimension (New York, 1977).

It thus seemed the logical thing for FAO, which had just hosted the World Conference, but which had also had this objective as part of its mandate from the very beginning in 1947, to set up a special action programme entitled "Prevention of Food Losses". The programme got under way in 1978 and had the task of carrying out studies and in-depth surveys with a view to gaining a clear view of the complex phenomenon of post-harvest losses and proposing appropriate remedies. Many projects were set up to further this end, especially in the countries most at risk due to climate and weak economy. Working in collaboration with specialized bodies and operators, concepts were gradually clarified and study methods became more sophisticated, branching out in many directions. Practical handbooks eventually appeared as the fruit of accumulated field experience and of countless reports, surveys and observations.

Whether published within FAO or elsewhere, the main works in this abundant material (books of general interest, manuals, extension pamphlets, etc.) offer extremely useful definitions, to which we shall refer for the sake of clarity of concepts, consistency and better understanding of post-harvest losses and their prevention within the post-harvest system or systems.

"Do you not understand that one needs a little more than nothing in order to exist?"
Jean Baudrillard, La société de consommation, Paris, 1970
(free quoting of Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 2, scene 4)