Rio de Janeiro – Although Brazil did not place high on the losses and food waste ranking of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), it does uphold good practices, including supply centers (Ceasas) and food banks which enhance and connect the country’s food and nutritional safety units.
The big problem facing the country, FAO representative in Brazil Alan Bojanic said, is the fact that 10% to 30% of food products are wasted as they find their way from harvest to buyers, and in some cases as much as 40%. “Throughout the chain there are different [waste] percentages,” Bojanic said at the seminar Sem Desperdício – Diálogos Brasil e União Europeia (No Waste – Brazil-European Union Discussions), held this Tuesday (31) in Rio de Janeiro by the FAO, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and NGO WWF-Brasil.
Bojanic said successful international experiences could be replicated in Brazil to substantially reduce those losses. “Because not only is this an ethical question, there’s also a very strong environmental dimension to it, like for instance the heavy greenhouse gas emissions from the foods that are being wasted. There’s a financial, economic and social question at play here.”
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
