This blog post was originally published onTheCityFix2015年4月15日。

It would take farm land墨西哥的大小只是为了增加人类生产的食物，但每年不吃东西。

More food goes uneaten at the消费阶段在其他任何阶段，供应链（例如房屋，餐馆和自助餐厅）的地方。几乎所有城市地区的经验高水平的食物浪费—food that is fit for consumption when it reaches consumers but is discarded before or after spoiling. While food waste presents significant challenges, addressing waste also provides an opportunity for growing cities to reduce their碳排放量, curb森林砍伐，减轻water withdrawals由农业引起。

The Environmental Costs of Food Production

如果当前的趋势继续下去，世界将需要通过70％by 2050. Growing that amount of food will put a significant strain on the planet. Food production is emissions-intensive because itconverts lands- 像森林和稀树草原一样，存储碳并保存生态系统 - 牧场或农田。例如，农民是砍掉印度尼西亚的雨林to grow crops like palm oil, making Indonesia the world’s最大的碳发射极每单位GDP。此外，13 percent在2010年的碳排放量中，来自农业活动，例如饲养牛，使用拖拉机以及生产和使用氮肥。包括土地转换，agriculturecontributes 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, uses 37 percent of Earth’s land, and accounts for 70 percent of water withdrawals worldwide.

In 2010, agriculture accounted for 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, 37 percent of the Earth’s landmass, and 70 percent of water withdrawals. Graphic by World Resources Institute.
In 2010, agriculture accounted for 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, 37 percent of the Earth’s landmass, and 70 percent of water withdrawals. Graphic by World Resources Institute.

鉴于粮食生产对环境的惊人影响，减少粮食浪费并减轻对粮食生产的需求可以使我们迈向更可持续的世界。

城市化放大食物浪费

According toThe Royal Society，由于食品相对于可支配收入，食品出现的高标准以及对粮食生产的现实缺乏了解，发达经济体的消费者浪费了更多食物。城市化将这三个因素引入消费者行为，因为城市化挣更多钱than rural workers,buy more food from supermarketsthat have high food appearance standards, and live further from where their food grows. To make the food waste challenge even more difficult, the UN projects that by 2050,25亿more people will live in urban areas and that urbanites will make up about two-thirds the world’s population. As a result, food waste is expected to rise significantly by 2050 in most cities.

Food waste is already growing worldwide. For example, food waste already comprises50％至70％of municipal solid waste in several Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. Furthermore, consumers in underdeveloped areas sometimes lack refrigerated storage in homes or other methods for preserving food.

城市Are Home to Innovative Food Solutions

幸运的是，一些地方政府，非政府组织和私人公司已经在探索innovative methods of managing and reducingtheir food waste.

For example, some organizations are redistributing food to people in need. Food Bank South Africarescues more than 4 metric tons of food每年在开普敦，约翰内斯堡和德班的当地非营利组织的帮助下，每年分配超过1400万顿饭。

Seoul, South Korea is implementing a policy tocharge people, organizations, and restaurantsfor their food waste. This will nudge restaurants to reduce their portion sizes and encourage people not to buy food they don’t need.

2014年2月，香港set a goalto reduce waste from food and its inedible parts (bones, rinds, peelings, etc.) by 40 percent by 2022 from 2011 levels. The report focuses on raising awareness to limit food waste and recycling food waste by composting it or burning it to produce energy. For example, 75 percent of inmates at the Lo Wu Correctional Institute now volunteer to receive smaller portions of food, saving 500 bowls of rice per day.

势头正在为城市建立紧急解决全球食品浪费的努力。例如，废物资源和行动计划（WRAP）计算出未食用的食物，使世界损失$400 billion annually，为业务采取行动提供了巨大的财务动机。世界资源必威官网手机版研究所正在领导发展粮食损失和废物协议，这将使城市和其他实体能够以可靠，实用和国际一致的方式报告他们创造了多少食物浪费。最后，联合国可持续发展目标的当前草案（可持续发展目标）包含到2030年到2030年的“人均全球食品浪费减半”的目标。

城市play an indispensable role in combating food waste and helping feed 9.5 billion people with fewer carbon emissions and minimal impact on natural resources.