The rich undergraduate and graduate curricula of the University of Ankara (Turkey) will be reinforced by FAO’s technical knowledge on food security and safety, agriculture policy, and topics crucial to food security such as climate-smart agriculture and food losses and waste. With support from the faculty’s research staff, a multidisciplinary FAO team will help develop training modules for knowledge-sharing in Turkey, and possibly also other Central Asian countries. Read more...

On 1 March 2016 the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) Commission of Natural Resources (NAT) hosted a policy debate on food waste. The Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction works in collaboration and partnership with the public sector, the private sector and with the civil society at local, sub-national, national, regional, and global level for policy development, research, and identification and implementation of solutions. Read more...

As part of the 2016 African Year of Human Rights, FAO is set to invest in securing women’s rights to land and other productive resources, developing women’s capacity to boost food production and creating more wealth for family farmers, while preventing and minimizing food losses and waste. The objective of these efforts is to enforce women’s right to land, food and decent employment. Read more...

In this video, Bernd Jablonowski of Messe Düsseldorf discusses the SAVE FOOD Initiative, the differences in food losses between developed and developing countries, and the goal of raising awareness of food loss and educating professionals on what they can do about it with the right technology and materials. Read more...

The Mapping of activities on interventions on PHM of the CoP members at country level is still active. An interactive map, available in the website for CoP members’ consultation and use, has been recently updated, and it needs your contribution to be enriched. Information can be send via the CoP Forum dedicated discussion or writing to [email protected]. Read more...

“Most poor rural farmers do not belong to farming organizations like farmers groups and cooperatives, so they are underrepresented in the community and prevented from participating in political and economic advocacy. Their use of out-dated technologies, deficiencies in rural infrastructure, a general lack of safe storage facilities and affordable transportation combine to reduce their productivity, resulting in high levels of postharvest losses and produce that is of uncompetitive quality,” said Rosa Rolle, an FAO senior specialist in agro-industry and postharvest techniques.
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The 34^th FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico, yielded very strong media attention – at the regionally level as might be expected, but also internationally. The challenges faced by the region (the number of hungry people, nutrition issues), as well the opening address by Mexican President Peña Nieto and the participation of other high-level government officials and new efforts to curb food waste in Mexico City were the topics that earned the largest relative coverage. Read more...

The world’s grasslands are going to need a lot more phosphorous to produce enough grass to feed livestock for future food demands. Using the manure from animals with phosphorous-rich diets to fertilize fields and pastures, managing food losses, and returning waste and residues to the field will help avoid the need to use phosphate rock, which is a finite natural resource. Read more...

The circular economy aims to keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract maximum value from them, and recover and regenerate them at the end of their useful lives. The European Union’s (EU's) wide-ranging circular economy package is winding its way through the corridors of Brussels and – although it will almost certainly be watered down – delivering a raft of new resource-related policies and rules. In Scotland, for example, the previously vague vision of producing a zero-waste society has been backed up by a more detailed circular economy strategy and a pledge to cut food waste by a third by 2025. Read more...

A new awards programme launched by the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) recognizes innovative and sustainable packaging that minimizes food waste. The Save Food Packaging Awards will reward packaging designs from Australia and New Zealand that reduce food losses, extend shelf-life and improve the supply of food. Entries will be considered in three categories: i) agriculture — industrial; ii) food services; and iii) retail (primary packaging). The winners of each category will automatically be entered into the international World Packaging Organisation Save Food Packaging Awards. Read more...

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for the Reduction of Postharvest Loss, led by Kansas State University (United States of America), focuses on designing technologies to improve the quality and quantities of grain. It has developed a more farmer-friendly, proprietary moisture metre to test grain moisture content, which will help prevent crop loss and infection. Read more...

A charity has opened Denmark's first ever food surplus supermarket in Copenhagen. The Wefood store will sell produce at prices that are 30 to 50 percent cheaper than in normal supermarkets. It has agreements with a major Danish supermarket chain, an importer of citrus fruits, a butcher and a producer of organic fruit and nut bars. Volunteers pick up the produce from these suppliers. Read more...

FAO recently donated a 45 KVA generator worth US$15 000 to the Koinadugu Women Vegetable Farmers' Cooperative in Sierra Leone to provide electricity for powering a 40-foot (12 m) refrigerator that preserves commodities and prevents postharvest losses. Read more...

The topic of Agrilinks’ first webinar of 2016 (in January) was improving on-farm storage by testing the efficacy of pull mechanisms in encouraging the private sector to address failures in the market system resulting from postharvest losses. Speakers from the AgResults On-Farm Storage pilot project in Kenya shared baseline results and the project’s main objectives. Read more...

This month, National Geographic is taking a look at food waste and wants to highlight your efforts to use funny-looking food to nourish yourselves, rather than throwing it into the waste bin. Take a look around you in the supermarket, the farmers’ market and the back of your fridge to find the rebellious fruits and vegetables that don’t conform to the norm, and turn them into something amazing. Read more...

Despite living in the richest country in the world, 48 million people in the United States of America don’t know where their next meal is coming from. This means that a staggering 19 percent of households with children are food-insecure. Meanwhile, nearly 40 percent of all food in the United States is thrown away. This saddening reality is unacceptable, and must be improved. Read more...