DURING Ramadan, it is timely to reflect on our food consumption and, more crucially, food waste.
The World Health Organisation and United Nations food agencies estimate that more than 800 million people do not get enough food, while two billion people suffer the hidden hunger of malnutrition. More than 160 million children under 5 risk stunted growth and development because of malnutrition.
Significant quantities of food are wasted at the retail and consumption stages. It is worse prevalent, underlining the fragility of food systems, which encompass agriculture, food supply chain, food environment, socio-economic development, consumer behaviour as well as diet.
The state of our food system is a barometer of human wellbeing, environment, society, economy and culture, linked to not only life and livelihood, but also education, human rights, security and peace. Failure to supply healthy food can result in malnutrition, with higher risks of stunting, wasting and obesity, which are chronic threats to public health.
Resources such as water, land, energy, labour and capital are lost when food goes to waste. Furthermore, waste in landfills contributes to greenhouse gases that exarcerbate climate change.
Therefore, preventing the collapse of food systems worldwide is paramount to human and planetary health. The current system of food production, processing, transportation and consumption will need to be re-examined to identify vulnerabilities and bottlenecks at the local, regional and global levels.
While Malaysia is still blessed with a short supply chain of staple food, we cannot overlook the urgency of food crises worldwide as populations, urbanisation and non-communicable diseases increase, compounded by extreme weather, and decreasing land and freshwater for agriculture.
Rising prices as a consequence of food waste will be harder felt by those at the bottom of society. Hence, we should all reduce food waste as a humanitarian act, as advocated by the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Food waste is a complex problem in food security that involves everyone, from governance, producers, logistics, retailers, to consumers. UN Secretary-General António Guterres considers "food loss and waste as an ethical outrage with over one third of the human population not being able to afford a healthy diet".
Prompt action must be taken to fortify the country's food supply chain before it becomes a crisis.
We must all reduce, reuse and recycle, to ensure sustainability for future generations. Overpackaging with non-degradable plastic must be avoided. Everyone should consume moderately to reduce leftovers.
Extra food in good condition should be donated to the poor and marginalised. Most food waste can be composted into fertiliser.
Indigenous communities, family farmers, rural women and youth can be incentivised to take up small-scale food crop farming to foster a more productive, environmentally sustainable and resilient food system.
Women's roles in the food system are often overlooked. They produce much of the world's fresh produce and as consumers, they choose and cook the ingredients to feed the family.
Therefore, women should be empowered as producers with knowledge in production and post-harvest handling, as entrepreneurs with marketing and business development know-how and as consumers with information on food and nutrition.
Government agencies facilitate small-scale producers' access to markets and incentivise agricultural enterprises with safety and quality assurance along the supply chain.
Funding for solutions to reduce food waste, consumption of natural resources or energy, and the ecological footprint of supply chains should be increased.
Everyone must contribute to ensuring future access to safe and nutritious food via a shift towards sustainable consumption and nature-positive production.
The writer is an associate professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia leading the Plant Functional
Genomics Research Group at the
Institute of Systems Biology