Food waste index report 2024
<p>The world wasted an estimated 19 per cent of the food produced globally in 2022, or about 1.05 billion metric tons, according to this new report by the UNEP.</p>
Food Policy
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Surging food prices bite across Asia
From the rice paddies of Asia to the wheat fields of Australia, the soaring price of food is breaking the budgets of the poor and raising the spectres of hunger and unrest, experts warn. A billion people in Asia are seriously affected by the surging costs of daily staples such as rice and bread, the director general of the Asian Development Bank, Rajat Nag, has said. "This includes roughly about 600 million people who live on just under a dollar a day, which is the definition of poverty, and another 400 million who are just above that borderline,' he said.
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First, the food facts
Let's be logical and not emotional about food. From ill-informed outsiders' point of view, it seems reasonable to blame rising prices on fast-growing demand in India and China. After all, these two facts are known: prices are rising globally, and the two Asian giants are the world's fastest growing economies. Plus, every school kid knows that prices go up if demand outpaces supply. Food, everyone knows, grows slowly. Presto!
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Biofuel moratorium 'would slash food prices'
A moratorium on grain and oilseed-based biofuels could slash food prices by up to 20% within the next two years, according to leading agricultural researchers. Agricultural experts called for a moratorium on the production of biofuels from corn Figures from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) suggest that suspension of production this year would reduce corn prices by about 20% and wheat by about 10% in 2009-10.
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ADB chief gives food security call
"The global fight against poverty will be won or lost in our region,' Kuroda said in a keynote speech to delegates at the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting. "Soaring food prices are hitting the poor very hard. This price surge has a stark human dimension and has greatly affected over a billion people in Asia and the Pacific alone,' he said. Asia is home to two thirds of the world's poor and risks rising social tension as a doubling of wheat and rice prices in the last year has slammed people who spend more than half their income on food .
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Bush bites into food debate, netas boil
A preachy America and a prickly India are both mouthing off over the world food crisis. Some of India's political leadership was foaming at the mouth on Saturday after misconstruing US President George Bush's remark that increasing prosperity in India had led to better diets, greater demand, and increasing prices, all of which had contributed to the global food crisis.
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$40m US food aid for primary children
The United States will donate $10 million in emergency food aid and another $30 million in food aid through a three-year school feeding programme in the country. "The primary beneficiaries of the new $10 million emergency food aid will be those still struggling to recover from the devastating effects of cyclone Sidr,' said US Ambassador to Bangladesh James F Moriarty at a press conference at the American Recreation Association in the city yesterday.
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Auction flaws led to Tk 80cr food spoilage
Imported perishable foods worth over a staggering Tk 80 crore were spoiled or exceeded expiration date for consumption in the last fourteen months due to inefficient auctioning mechanism of unclaimed containers at Chittagong Port. The huge quantity of food items had to be disposed of at a time when a huge segment of the populace is trying to cope with galloping food prices.
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Rising global food prices also due to India's prosperity: Bush
United States President George W. Bush joined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in ascribing the spiralling global food prices to the rising prosperity of India's huge middle class. Prosperity in countries such as India was "good' but it triggered increased demand for "better nutrition' which in turn led to higher food prices, Mr. Bush said. At an interactive session on economy in Missouri, Mr. Bush argued that there were many factors for the present crisis, only one of which was investment in biofuels such as ethanol.
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Agriculture : needed a comprehensive policy (Editorial)
Alarming fall in agricultural productions in Assam has been admitted by the Chief Minister in a press conference on April 24 last. Though the Chief Minister on the first day of his assumption of office had emphasised that agriculture would be at the top of his agenda, the present day performance level of this sector is agonisingly far below expectations. What then is the reason of present day crisis in productivity?
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ASEAN pact on food prices
Trade Ministers of the 10-member South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed to cooperate in securing food price stability in the region. "Essentially, we together agreed not to take steps that could bring the distortion or worsen the chaos of markets. It's very important to make sure food prices, even if rise, not to fluctuate to the illogical level,' said Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu at an ASEAN Economic Ministers' meeting in Bali on Saturday.