Aug 20, 2026 · 18 min · 8 segments
Every day, households around the world throw away more than one billion meals. Globally, nearly 1.05 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year, roughly one-fifth of all the food we produce. But…
Vandana SinghGuest
Shreya MHost
Thank you so much, Shreya, for having me here, and also for taking up the issue of food loss and waste, which is critical both for food security and the environment.
Vandana, ma'am, when most people hear food waste, they imagine throwing away leftovers.
When most people think of food waste, they picture uneaten food which ends up in the landfills.
What is not seen is that every piece of wasted food also represents a loss of valuable resources that were used to produce, transport, and distribute it.
Roughly a quarter or a third of the world's agricultural land is used to grow food, um, that's never eaten and goes waste.
These farms instead could have been used to produce other things, uh, or even just grow trees as a forest cover.
For example, it requires about 100 liters of water to grow one apple, and even more to grow one banana.
But that is not directly visible to us as consumers when we let a banana go waste.
It's wastage of land, 100 liters of water, labor, energy, transportation costs, et cetera, that went into the production of that banana which is wasted, and this is not visible to us as consumers.
Also, when, uh, food is lost or wasted and reaches landfills, it releases methane gases, which is a potent greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change.
In fact, as you had mentioned, about 8 to 10% of greenhouse gases are contributed, uh, by food waste.
And if global food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States of America and China.
So with the climate crisis already there, the environmental impact of food waste is also very high and is...
And then, of course, there is the lost opportunity when food is discarded, food which could have been used, uh, to feed people facing hunger.
Thank you so much, Shreya, for having me here, and also for taking up the issue of food loss and waste, which is critical both for food security and the environment.
Vandana, ma'am, when most people hear food waste, they imagine throwing away leftovers.
When most people think of food waste, they picture uneaten food which ends up in the landfills.
What is not seen is that every piece of wasted food also represents a loss of valuable resources that were used to produce, transport, and distribute it.
Roughly a quarter or a third of the world's agricultural land is used to grow food, um, that's never eaten and goes waste.
These farms instead could have been used to produce other things, uh, or even just grow trees as a forest cover.
For example, it requires about 100 liters of water to grow one apple, and even more to grow one banana.
But that is not directly visible to us as consumers when we let a banana go waste.
It's wastage of land, 100 liters of water, labor, energy, transportation costs, et cetera, that went into the production of that banana which is wasted, and this is not visible to us as consumers.
Also, when, uh, food is lost or wasted and reaches landfills, it releases methane gases, which is a potent greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change.
In fact, as you had mentioned, about 8 to 10% of greenhouse gases are contributed, uh, by food waste.
And if global food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States of America and China.
So with the climate crisis already there, the environmental impact of food waste is also very high and is...
And then, of course, there is the lost opportunity when food is discarded, food which could have been used, uh, to feed people facing hunger.
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