Sustainability from Farm to Fork: Food Waste and Food Loss

South African agribusinesses which export to the European Union (EU) will have been keeping an eye on the increasing suite of laws coming out of the EU that seek to clean up the sustainability practices of entities within the global supply chains of goods entering the EU. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is one such example. Published on 5 July 2024, it introduces mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence requirements for large non-EU companies exporting into the EU.

Another example is the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which imposes due diligence obligations from 30 December 2024 aimed at tackling deforestation in the production and export of a wide range of commodities, including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soya, and wood. The European Commission has proposed to defer the commencement of the EUDR to 30 December 2025; however, the proposal has not yet been adopted by the European Parliament and Council.

A third example is the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which commenced in October 2023 with a transitional phase running until January 2027 that seeks to impose a tariff on carbon-intensive goods imported into the EU.

However, there is a fourth potentially relevant law, relating to food waste and food loss, that requires consideration. Throughout the food supply chain, a significant portion of food is lost or wasted. The terms ‘food loss’ and ‘food waste’ are distinct terms, with ‘food loss’ applying to the initial stages of the supply chain and ‘food waste’, to the later stages. The EU Waste Framework Directive (EFD) is in the process of being amended, and if approved, will require member states to take measures at a national level to, inter alia, reduce the generation of food waste by 10 per cent in the processing and manufacture of food and by 30 per cent at retail and consumer level using the food waste baseline generated in 2020.

The amendments provide for a review of the above targets in 2027 to potentially extend them to other stages of the food supply chain, as targets have not been set for all sections of the supply chain. These targets are proposed to be achieved by 31 December 2030.

Targets like these are not unexpected, as increased focus is being given to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by their target date of 2030. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly launched the 17 SDGs in 2015 as a ‘blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all’ that are intended to be achieved by the year 2030. SDG 2 aims to achieve ‘zero hunger’, while SDG 12.3 aims to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.

In a seminal study by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it was reported that about 33 per cent of globally produced food is lost or wasted at some point in the food supply chain (FAO 2013). Approximately half of the 33 per cent loss takes place at the point of primary production and arises from a range of factors, including strict quality demands with respect to weight, size, shape, and appearance, for example. Thereafter, processing, packaging, distribution, and retail account for a further 45 per cent of this wasted food. The remaining 5 per cent of food waste is the responsibility of consumers.

These statistics differ for different parts of the supply chain in developed and developing economies. However, if food waste is to be tackled holistically, each part of the supply chain requires focus. The EU is not averse to seeking to impose requirements down the supply chains of goods entering the EU. It remains to be seen whether requirements will be introduced from 2027 to ensure that food loss is reduced throughout the supply chain and how this might affect non-EU entities.

Even if this does not materialise, South Africa has already begun to put in place the policy measures required to address food loss and food waste in certain parts of the food supply chain. At the retail level, in 2020, the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa launched a voluntary agreement for food manufacturers and retailers to reduce food waste, which now has over 67 core signatories and 33 associate signatories.

Furthermore, in 2023 the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment published a Draft Strategy for Reducing Food Losses and Waste as part of a key intervention under the existing National Waste Management Strategy 2020, which was published in terms of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008.

There are numerous social, economic, environmental, and ethical reasons why reducing food loss and food waste is a global issue that needs to be addressed.

From a social and economic point of view, in line with global trends, about 30 per cent of South African agricultural production is wasted each year, which is equivalent to an estimated R60 billion a year, or about 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). South Africa generates an estimated 12.6 million tonnes of food loss and waste per annum (a third of the food available). It’s estimated that every tonne of edible surplus food could make an estimated 4,000 meals. In a country where 30 per cent of households are at risk of hunger, 31 per cent experience hunger (approximately 7.4 million people), and 13 million children live in poverty, this is unsustainable and needs to change.

From an environmental point of view, producing more with less is imperative, with there being multiple environmental-related benefits for doing so. As regards climate, it has been suggested that if addressing food loss and food waste is not prioritised, the target set in the Paris Agreement to keep rising temperatures below 2°C will be nearly impossible to reach. It is estimated that if global food waste were a country, the levels of greenhouse gas emitted from discarded food waste to landfills would place this country third behind the largest contributors of greenhouse gases, the United States and China.

As regards biodiversity, half of the world’s habitable land that is ice-free and desert-free is now used for agriculture. Large parts of the world that were once covered by forests and wildlands are now used for agriculture. This loss of natural habitat has been the main driver for reducing the world’s biodiversity. Humanity and our livestock now comprise approximately 96 per cent of mammalian biomass on earth, with all other wild mammal species making up just 4 per cent. It is estimated that it takes an area the size of China to grow the food that is thrown away every year, which is a significant waste of natural resources with an unjustified impact on biodiversity for food that is never eaten.

In 2022, the COP15 UN summit gave rise to the equivalent of the Paris Agreement for biodiversity, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The framework aims to protect 30 per cent of terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas by 2030. It also highlights the connection between food waste and biodiversity loss, specifically calling for a 50 per cent reduction in global food waste by 2030 in Target 16. In so doing, the target we saw in SDG 12.3 is elevated to a target enshrined in the Global Biodiversity Framework, a multi-national international instrument.

As regards water, nearly 3 billion people and more than half of the world’s food production are now in areas where total water storage is projected to decline because of climate change. Approximately 70 per cent of global freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture, which means that any food that is wasted or lost has unnecessarily used up scarce available water.

The global share of undernourished people dropped from approximately 65 per cent in 1950 to 8.9 per cent by 2019, which is an impressive feat considering that the world population rose from about 2.5 billion people to 7.7 billion people between 1950 and 2020. This means that in 1950 the world was able to supply adequate food to about 890 million people, but by 2019, that number had risen to just over 7 billion people – a significant achievement. However, the latest estimates for 2023 indicate a global prevalence of undernourishment of 9.1 per cent, suggesting that we may have peaked in our achievement to reduce undernourishment.

It is estimated that by 2050, 2 billion extra people will live on the planet, which will require a 70 per cent increase in food production. If these estimates are indeed accurate, we cannot afford to waste food, and reducing inefficiencies in our food system around waste would help us meet this growing demand. As a result, we can expect greater scrutiny and future legislative action around reducing food loss and waste, thereby increasing the efficiency of our food production systems.

This year (2024) the UN marked its fifth observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste on 29 September. What measures are you and your business taking to become part of the solution from farm to fork?

James Brand

Executive | Natural Resources and Environment

jbrand@ENSafrica.com