Over Christmas and the year-end period, people meet with friends and family and feast on their favorite festive food. But what about the leftovers? South Africa wastes over 10 megatons of food a year — yet over half the population of the country live below the poverty line and quarter experience food insecurity daily. Why is South Africa so wasteful? And what can everyone do to turn the tide?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00For most people, the end of the year is a special time to get together with friends and family,
00:04whether you're celebrating Hanukkah or Christmas,
00:07or whether you are just sharing your New Year's resolutions with those who are closest to you,
00:13it all tends to revolve around food, doesn't it?
00:16Food. Glorious food.
00:20But what about the leftovers?
00:23Time to talk food waste. Welcome to the Flipside.
00:26Now, where I celebrate the festive season each year, which is in South Africa,
00:31the amount of food products that end up in landfills each year
00:35can be as much as six sports stadiums.
00:39That's according to a report by the UN Environment Programme.
00:43Meanwhile, over half the population of the country live below the national upper bound poverty line,
00:49and about a quarter experience food insecurity every day.
00:53And that's according to the World Bank.
00:56In South Africa, up to 12 million people don't know where their next meal is coming from,
01:00and yet we're wasting 10 million tonnes of food every year.
01:04Addressing food waste and loss is one of the most significant ways we can try and
01:09deal with that really big issue of food insecurity and hunger in our country.
01:13And of course, there are obvious issues regarding the environment as well.
01:17We estimate that a third of food is dumped in South Africa every year.
01:22This has significant ecological impacts because all that food has compounded water and energy.
01:28And from a climate change perspective, in the landfill,
01:32it emits harmful greenhouse gases, both methane and carbon dioxide.
01:36So why does so much food end up in the trash?
01:40The majority of food in South Africa is thrown out well before it reaches the customer,
01:45with nearly half of all food products being sent to the garbage dump.
01:49At the agricultural or harvesting stages of the food chain.
01:53And this is officially not regarded as food waste, but as food loss.
02:00Food loss part is normally more on the farm or kind of supplier side,
02:04and food waste starts moving more into the consumer behaviour side.
02:08But it really is about addressing the issue across the entire value chain.
02:13So one big issue in South Africa is food loss.
02:16This industrial level waste that is occurring at each stage of the supply chain.
02:21And this needs to be addressed at the policy level.
02:24But what can we as everyday consumers do against food being discarded?
02:30You know, just looking at how you store food appropriately is the first step.
02:33So checking what needs to be refrigerated, where in the refrigerator it should go,
02:38doing some planning around your shopping so that you don't overpurchase,
02:42you know, for a period of a few days when you are shopping.
02:45Another big problem in South Africa is the fact that there is very little comprehensive legislation
02:50that regulates food ending up in the trash as such.
02:54Little progress is being made actually.
02:59So there needs to be a kind of a reconcerted effort when it comes to, of course,
03:07dealing with food waste, because food waste in some ways is a symptom
03:12of an unsustainable food system.
03:15And while other countries have adopted strict regulations to prioritise feeding those in need,
03:20South Africa keeps throwing away twice as much food each year as Russia, the biggest country on earth.
03:28There are always shelters within close vicinity of most metropolitan areas where we live,
03:34who would be very grateful for food donations of any sort that do come through.
03:38Ultimately, it's up to us to be more mindful about our choices,
03:42while also demanding change from the top levels to stop food loss and food waste.
03:48And maybe we should also refrain from using the term food loss,
03:53because waste is waste, no matter how you present it or term it.
03:58And that's the flip side.