The Paradox Of Food in Colombia: Waste With Hunger

In Colombia, 9.7 million tons of food are lost per year, while almost a third of households live in severe or moderate food insecurity , a paradox vindicated this Friday on the occasion of the "International Day of Awareness of Loss and Waste food".

"With the food we throw away in Colombia every year we could feed the entire population of Panama, plus the entire population of Uruguay and the entire population of Luxembourg three meals a day for a year," Juan Carlos Buitrago explains to EFE. He is the director of Ábaco, an organization that brings together 24 Colombian food banks, to estimate that figure.

This translates, in turn, into the fact that with all the food that is wasted each year in the country "hunger could be put an end to in Colombia."

"The paradox is gigantic today in Colombia: we have 20.4 million people who have or are using coping strategies because they cannot access the food they need, who are lowering the quality of what they eat by skipping meals, borrowing food or going into debt to purchase food," recalls Buitrago.

Furthermore, the figures are alarming, since so far this year 219 children under five have died from malnutrition and more than 560,000 children have chronic malnutrition, all while "Colombia throws away a third of its food."

And beyond hunger, "if food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases," warns WWF-Colombia.

Where is it wasted and what to do

40% of the food lost in the country is in agricultural production, due to the lack of supply plans that put "supply and demand on a balance" to avoid overproducing, in addition to the shortage of tertiary routes or good condition of roads for food transportation.

This means that "many farmers sometimes prefer to throw away the harvest because it is more expensive for them to harvest." And yet, fruits and vegetables are among the foods that are most wasted in Colombia.

On the other hand, 16% of food wasted comes from households. According to a WWF study, Colombians understand waste "only as what happens on the plate," but it encompasses much more than the expiration of uneaten food.

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Colombia has a recent food waste law whose implementation is underway, but as individuals, the organizations point out, actions can be taken to prevent food waste, such as planning the purchase or looking for a better storage method, which be more efficient.

Taking inventory of expiration dates or freezing foods can be a good strategy. It is also essential to "eat local", take advantage of what is closest in each region, which not only helps avoid waste, but also the environment, reminds WWF-Colombia.

Waste and the environment

Food waste affects the environment "through and through," recalls Carolina Escallón, Sustainable Consumption Officer at WWF-Colombia. The final part is usually the most visible, when it is thrown into the trash and the waste it generates, which ends up in some landfill in the city.

The degradation of these ends up producing methane gas which, in turn, connects with the cycle of greenhouse gases that make the climate more unstable and end up affecting food production.

On the other hand, food production on a global scale uses 34% of the land and 70% of the fresh water, so when a food is thrown away, all the resources used to grow it are also thrown away.

In this sense, "if climate variability continues to increase – causing torrential rains or prolonged droughts, for example – we will put crops at risk" and, therefore, hunger will not be able to be alleviated. The same occurs if there continue to be high rates of biodiversity loss.