Today is World Food Day – a day that we take to heart at Leanpath. Coming on the heels of Climate Week in New York City, where we spent several days engaged in energizing sessions on how to positively change the global food system with numerous partners and thought leaders from organizations such as the World Resources Institute and Champions 12.3, The Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN), and the Future Food Institute, we’re even more energized by the importance of this day.
World Food Day was created to commemorate the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 1945. Each year, a critical theme related to the state of global food security is chosen to raise awareness of that problem and to accelerate the development of solutions.
This year’s theme is entitled “Our actions are our future: Healthy diets for a #ZeroHunger world.” Notably, it reinforces key themes outlined in the EAT-Lancet Commission’s report on healthy diets from sustainable food systems: In order to successfully feed ten billion global citizens by 2050, we must transition to a diet that ensures the health of individuals while also ensuring the health of the planet.
To accelerate progress toward many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focused on food security and climate challenges, we must reduce the amount of food that is lost or wasted. Underlining this point, the FAO’s annual report in the State of Food and Agriculture series, released this week in conjunction with World Food Day, appropriately focuses on “Moving Forward on Food Loss and Waste Reduction.”
At Leanpath we are completely supportive of the FAO’s push to drive food waste reduction, and in particular on Target 12.3 of the SDGs – which calls for 50% reduction in food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030 as well as reductions in losses along food supply chains.
We have long recognized that losing and wasting between a third and half of global food production annually is not only morally wrong, it is simply unsustainable – and we are scaling our efforts accordingly.
Since 2014 alone our team has prevented the occurrence of more than 45 million pounds (20 million kilograms) of food waste across thousands of sites, in keeping with our vision of ensuring a sustainable future for all by eliminating global food waste.
We recognize that when it comes to the global food system, our actions are indeed our future, and we’re energized by our role in supporting the World Food Day message of action for healthy people and a healthy planet.
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