Researchers say problem could increase number of people at risk of starvation by 400m in next two decades

The pollution of the planet by microplastics is significantly cutting food supplies by damaging the ability of plants to photosynthesise, according to a new assessment.

  • Zacryon@feddit.org
    121·
    1 day ago

    “Humanity has been striving to increase food production to feed an ever-growing population [but] these ongoing efforts are now being jeopardised by plastic pollution,” said the researchers, led by Prof Huan Zhong, at Nanjing University in China.

    Meanwhile:

    In 2022, the world wasted 1.05 billion tonnes of food. This amounts to one fifth (19 per cent) of food available to consumers being wasted, at the retail, food service, and household level. That is in addition to the 13 per cent of the world’s food lost in the supply chain, as estimated by FAO, from post-harvest up to and excluding retail.
    • […] Out of the total food wasted in 2022, households were responsible for 631 million tonnes equivalent to 60 percent, the food service sector for 290 and the retail sector for 131.
    • Reducing food waste provides compounding benefits: Food loss and waste generates 8-10 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – almost five times the total emissions from the aviation sector. It occurs while 783 million people are hungry and a third of humanity faces food insecurity.

    Source: UN Environment Programme – Food Waste Index Report 2024 (Key Messages)

    • houseofleft@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
      11·
      1 day ago

      Thanks for sharing! This is really important context. It’s worth mentioning as well that our current food systen, particularly concerning the amount of meat in it, is pretty far from being an efficient use of crops.

    • naught101@lemmy.world
      2·
      24 hours ago

      Those numbers seem worrying. 68% of food making it from farm to mouth seems very high. I suspect there are some inherent inefficiencies that mean it’ll never be close to 100. We are also pushing up against the limits of available farmland and a number of key nutrients. And the population is still growing…

    • houseofleft@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
      12·
      1 day ago

      I guess it’s good news in that this is a relatively early discovery so we can minimise impact if policy makers act on it.

      That doesn’t seem to have worked so far with climste research though. . .

        • ᴍᴜᴛɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴡᴀᴠᴇ @lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          Yeah they’ll protest against any attempt to fix it after they’re propagandized into thinking it is woke and will raise their taxes. Small farmers are a vanishingly small part of the food grown in the US, and most of them are wealthy assholes. Family farmer is just a political pawn that gets trotted out to raise emotions. Oh no the Democrats might hurt their precious subsidies! These poor family farmers might starve while owning millions of dollars in land.