← All issues
Food waste

Why is a third of all food grown never eaten?

1.05bn
tonnes of food thrown away every year
UNEP, 2024
~17%
less food wasted per person in UK homes than in 2007, after shared industry measurement and reduction targets
WRAP, 2023
Food waste is really two separate problems, and they need opposite fixes:
Wasted food uses nearly a third of all farmland and costs the economy over $1tn last year; as it rots, it releases methane that accelerates climate change, while close to 800 million people go hungry.
Sub-Saharan Africa
High severity

Cereal postharvest losses run 20–30% across the region, costing over $4bn a year — the farm-storage gap PICS bags and ColdHubs both target.FAO / World Bank

This problem occurs worldwide, not concentrated in any one region.