Angelina S. Gustilo

STOP FOOD WASTE!!!!! By: amsgustilo Often, we hear our mothers’ admonishment over family meals for the food left unconsumed on our plates. We often hear them say “Finish your food, many are struggling hard just to get a piece of meat to feed their children”. Commonly, we would think of it as an exaggeration of the issue over the food. At the back of our minds, we say so what it is there that I should be concerned of? It was until I came across the The “ Save Food Asia – Pacific Campaign” which was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) together with Asian Institute of Technology. The campaign’s purpose is to reduce food loss and waste post-harvest losses as well as the food waste at the final consumption stage of the food chain. Furthermore, before this campaign, the FAO and the United Nations did provide the footsteps of existing food waste-reduction efforts, which consist of the Save Food initiative and Think – Eat – Save campaign. In the world, 28% of the total food waste are from the Industrialized Asia (Japan, South Korea, and China), while the South and South East Asia waste 21%. The number showed that the level of wasted food in Asia is very high – nearly 50%. The data maybe vague for those whose table is full of sumptuous meals. But hey, we can do something about this concern. Food waste can be reduced if we make it us our personal advocacy to help the situation. We waste one third of all the food which we produce which means we wasted one third of what we input in producing process in term of time, money and effort. Moreover, when we waste food, we waste not only food, but also waste land, water resources and energy that we used in order to produce food. We may not solve the lack of equipment and facilities in harvesting, storage, transportation individually. But we can first change our behaviour of using and eating. Remember that there are 795 million of people who are suffered by hunger. Let the change start from us. Let us be the catalysts for this advocacy. The next time we put food on our plates, let us always bear in mind that we put what we can consume only.