Cui Chengxin， head of a rural cooperative in east China， estimated his cooperative had managed to reduce its grain loss rate from 4 to 1.5 percent by using machineries to harvest the crops.
　　He lives in Jinan， capital of Shandong Province and the host city of the first International Conference on Food Loss and Waste， held both online and offline， from September 9 to 11. The conference， proposed by China at the first session of the 15th G20 Leaders’Summit in November 2020， centered on “reducing food loss and waste and promoting global food security.” It aimed to build a global consensus， safeguard the world’s food security and contribute to the zero hunger target the UN has included in its 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
　　In his congratulatory letter to the conference， President Xi Jinping called on countries around the world to take swift and concrete action to reduce food loss and waste.
　　Noting the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic， Xi named food security as a fundamental issue vis-à-vis the existence of humanity， and said that the reduction of food loss is an important way to ensure food security.
　　Representatives from over 50 countries and regions attended the conference， including agricultural ministers from a number of G20 members such as Italy， the U.S.， the United Kingdom， France and Indonesia， as well as diplomats， scholars， corporate executives and others.

A global problem

　　According to the Food and Agriculture Organization （FAO） of the United Nations， food loss occurs along the food supply chain from harvest/slaughter/catch up to， but not including， the retail level. Food waste occurs at the retail and consumption levels.
　　At present， food loss and waste are omnipresent. The FAO estimated in one of its annual flagship publications， The State of Food and Agriculture 2019， that 14 percent of the world’s food is lost from post-harvest up to， but not including， the retail level. According to The Food Waste Index Report 2021， published by the United Nations Environment Program （UNEP） and partner organization WRAP， a non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom， an estimated 931 million tons of food， or 17 percent of total food available to consumers in 2019， disappeared into the waste bins of households， retailers， restaurants and other food services.
　　In the meantime， as the pandemic still rants and raves， heavily disrupting the food supply chain， and extreme weather conditions such as extraordinarily high temperatures， severe droughts and ravaging storms have become frequent， international food prices remain high. 　　All in all， global food security is deteriorating. In its latest annual Global Report on Food Crises， the FAO notes that 155 million people in 2020 experienced high levels of food insecurity， an increase of about 20 million people from the previous report and a new fiveyear high.
　　Wu Laping， a professor with the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University， told Beijing Review that both food loss and waste are related to a country’s economic development level. “Developing countries suffer serious food loss， whereas developed countries waste more，” Wu said.
　　Food loss in underdeveloped areas such as Africa and South Asia mainly occurs in the harvest and storage processes. For instance， 30 percent of food is lost in the storage process in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. However， food waste in developed countries such as the U.S. and West European nations mainly occurs in the consumption stage， with the U.S. wasting 21 percent of food， meaning the average American wastes around 124 kg of food every year.
　　According to FAO estimates， in China， over 6 percent of food is lost or wasted in the harvesting， transportation， storage and processing processes every year. China’s grain output in 2020 was 669.5 million tons and calculated according to the 6 percent rate，40.15 million tons of grain were lost or wasted， tantamount to the overall output of major grain producer Anhui Province last year.

　　Food loss and waste increases the consumption of resources such as land and water as well as the input of production materials such as fertilizer and pesticide， putting more pressure on the environment. Reducing food loss and waste can therefore help foster the sustainable development of agriculture.
　　In sum， there are two ways to ensure food security： increasing output and reducing food loss and waste. However， restricted by resources and the environment by large， there is limited room for increasing output， which makes the reduction option the more urgent one.
　　The annual global food output is roughly 2.8 billion tons. If waste was reduced by just one percentage point， 28 million tons of food could be saved， enough to sustain 70 million people for a year， China’s Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Ma Youxiang said at a press conference on September 7.
　　Wu added that as food loss and waste occur at different stages of the food supply chain in developing and developed countries， they should adopt different coping mechanisms. Underdeveloped economies should focus on the harvesting and storage phases and reduce the loss by promoting modern harvesting machineries， storage facilities and low-temperature transportation vehicles. Developed countries， on their part， should reduce waste in the consumption process.