In all places internationally we waste meals. Throughout high- and low-income nations alike, we lose or waste a 3rd of all of the meals we produce, which prices the worldwide financial system an estimated US$1 trillion yearly.
Southeast Asia isn’t any exception. Meals loss and waste is a drag on each nation within the area.Â
Annually in Indonesia, US$39 billion of meals is misplaced or wasted, knocking down financial development. Meals loss and waste in Vietnam is estimated to be the equal of two per cent of gross home product. In Philippines, the Division of Agriculture lately estimated that 30 per cent of produce is misplaced at post-harvest stage as a result of poor logistics or storage amenities, a tragic waste of priceless diet and farmland. And the developments will not be encouraging: meals waste is estimated to have elevated by 30 per cent in Singapore over the past decade.
This can be a tragedy for the hundreds of thousands of individuals within the area who’re meals insecure, a pattern made worse by catastrophic climate occasions. It’s also fueling local weather change and the storms ravaging Southeast Asia as meals loss and waste is accountable for 8-10 per cent of world greenhouse gasoline emissions, significantly poisonous methane, which is 86 occasions stronger than carbon dioxide when analyzing its world warming impacts over a 20-year interval.
As we speak, not a single nation in Southeast Asia has dedicated to decreasing meals loss and waste as a part of its Nationwide Decided Contributions below the Paris Settlement but. As leaders from Southeast Asia head to Baku, Azerbaijan for COP29, it is a chance to place plans in place and act to forestall meals waste.
One key answer is already taking part in out throughout the area: meals banking.
Meals banks function below a easy, time-tested mannequin: they recuperate secure, nutritious meals that will in any other case be despatched to a landfill and redirect it to individuals going through meals insecurity. Meals banks go on to sources together with farmers, meals producers, wholesale markets, grocery shops, and lodge buffets, amongst many others on the availability chain.
The result’s a win for all concerned as much less meals leads to landfills, defending our planet. Companies save prices of transporting and dumping good meals. And hundreds of thousands extra individuals are capable of eat with out growing meals manufacturing and additional straining our pure assets.
Whereas meals banking has existed for many years in the US, Europe, and Latin America, it’s nonetheless comparatively new in Southeast Asia. However now we have seen super development within the scale and geographic attain of meals banks in recent times. From 2019 to 2023, 9 promising meals banks in Southeast Asia which might be a part of The International FoodBanking Community’s Accelerator programme elevated the variety of individuals served by seventeen occasions, to 14 million. Over the identical interval, meals recovered and distributed elevated tenfold.
Removed from an anomaly, the nice leap of meals banks in Southeast Asia is an indication of the super potential of meals restoration and redistribution: right this moment, lower than 1 per cent of all misplaced and wasted meals is recovered. Meals banks in Southeast Asia see this chance and are displaying how cooperation between authorities, the personal sector, and civil society can create coalitions to scale back meals waste and feed extra individuals.
In Thailand, Students of Sustenance Basis (SOS Thailand) went from recovering meals from a couple of Bangkok motels in 2016 to recovering 2 million kilograms of surplus meals from throughout the availability chain in 4 main cities in Thailand final 12 months. They’ve turn into a information for the nation’s meals donation security pointers and are a key companion for the Thailand Nationwide Science and Expertise Growth Company’s plans to determine a nationwide meals financial institution.
In Philippines, the place a 3rd of the youngsters are stunted, Rise In opposition to Starvation Philippines (RAHP) has established an progressive surplus meals answer on the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal that advantages each the farmers and youngsters in the neighborhood. At this buying and selling put up, farmers can come to RAHP’s meals financial institution to donate their surplus produce in trade for meals staples and family provides. The donated vegatables and fruits are then distributed to kids within the surrounding colleges. Within the first 9 months of this system, 1.2 million kilograms of surplus vegatables and fruits had been obtained from the farmers and distributed weekly to five,000 college students in the neighborhood.
This initiative not solely addresses rapid meals safety wants but additionally strengthens rural economies and helps neighborhood resilience, fostering a mannequin of agricultural sustainability in Nueva Vizcaya and past.
Meals banks are additionally serving to form higher coverage for sustainable meals methods. Meals banks in Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam have partnered with The International Meals Donation Coverage Atlas to judge legal guidelines and supply suggestions that may foster extra meals donation and fewer loss and waste.
Issues are shifting within the area, with the Asean Leaders’ Declaration on Strengthening Meals Safety and Diet in Response to Crises in 2023 recognising the function of meals banks in strengthening meals safety. Latest payments have been handed within the area, resembling Singapore’s Good Samaritan Meals Donation Invoice after a four-year-long session amongst stakeholders.
Leaders in Southeast Asia have a chance to make nice strides for individuals and the planet by supporting meals banks ensuring no good meals goes to waste.
Hazel Quek is the Asia Pacific Regional Director at The International FoodBanking Community, a meals financial institution community spanning greater than 50 nations that works on community-led options for starvation.
