FAO and UNECE discuss food loss and waste

20/11/2019

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) came together to jointly organize a Conference focusing on the reduction of food loss and waste in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Ms. Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, Director of FAO’s Liaison Office in Geneva, in her opening remarks today, underscored the longstanding collaboration with the UNECE in several areas. Speaking on the theme of the conference, she urged member countries to step up their efforts to tackle the root causes of food loss and waste at all stages. “Policy measures should be coherent and involve effective monitoring and evaluation of interventions to assure accountability of existing actions and efforts,” she said.

Ms. Rodrigues Birkett referred to the recent State of Food and Agriculture Report 2019, launched last October 14 by FAO, which indicates that globally around 14 percent of the world's food is lost after harvesting and before reaching the retail level, including through on-farm activities, storage and transportation. The food loss figure varies considerably from one region to another. She clarified that this Report deals with food loss only.

Presenting opening remarks on behalf of the UNECE, Ms. Nicola Koch, Chef de Cabinet and Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) highlighted the need for a multifaceted policy approach to Food Loss and Waste and the importance of having more data. “The measurement of the food loss, its hotspots and its economic impacts seem to have gained attention in recent years,” she said. “Data collection using information from this measurement will create big data which will help policy makers,” she added. Ms. Koch also mentioned the linkages with green house gas emissions from lost and wasted food production and the important role to be played by supply chains in the Food Loss and Waste reduction approaches.

Mr. Andrea Cattaneo, Senior Economist, FAO, and editor of the State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) Report presented the report in detail and provided options on how to move forward on the issue of food loss and waste, while Ms. Rosa Rolle, Senior Enterprise Officer of FAO focused her presentation on possible policy options for Government and promoted the “Community of Practice” platform on the issue.

In a keynote speech delivered at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Rockefeller Foundation conference on food loss and waste reduction held at the Vatican on November 11, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, recalled that the reduction of food loss and waste is a longstanding issue in FAO’s work.