Food waste resulting from crop failure is a major factor in combating climate change.
When taking measures to combat climate change, it is not only necessary to pay attention to those factors that generate a direct effect on our environment, through their polluting character, but also to become aware of those other elements that, despite their lesser visibility or direct incidence, have a considerable influence on global warming.
In this sense, the different analyses carried out by the group of experts selected by the United Nations to make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have shown that around 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions that are produced annually on our Planet have their origin in food waste.
In fact, it is estimated that just over 25% of the world’s food production is not finally used for direct consumption or transformation, becoming food waste.
Given this statement, it is logical that your first impression of this very high level of waste in food production concentrates the responsibility for this situation almost exclusively on the final consumers of food products.
However, it should be borne in mind that this calculation is made taking into account all the links involved in the food production process, which in the case of agriculture ranges from the harvesting of crops to the consumer’s table.
Therefore, a large part of this food waste, and especially in the case of the agrifood sector, is caused by damage to crops due to the action of pests and diseases on the crops, resulting in the loss of a considerable part of production, which prevents these products from being finally marketed.
This is one of the aspects that explains the extraordinary importance of plant health as a fundamental axis to contribute to the food supply of the population and, at the same time, to establish the channels to act in a decisive way against those effects that have a direct incidence on the climate change that is taking place in our planet.
Source: AEPLA
