Climate-proofing farms to help feed the world's expanding population needs to be complemented by global measures to cut food losses and waste (see Nature 523, 396–397; 2015).
Roughly one-third of the food produced annually for human consumption — around 1.3 billion tonnes per year — is lost or wasted worldwide (see M. M. Rutten Agric. Food Secur. 2, 13; 2013). In developing economies, more than 40% of food losses occur after harvesting or during processing (see go.nature.com/um7vga).
We should follow the lead of the Asia-Pacific economies, which have pledged to reduce food losses and waste by 10% relative to 2011–12 levels by 2020 (see go.nature.com/rfupkz).
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Gunasekera, D. Cut food waste to help feed world. Nature 524, 415 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/524415a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/524415a
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