My aim with all of my work and my writing is to deliver clear-eyed, independent perspective and solutions on major issues humanity faces as we fight and innovate to survive on this planet. As part of that, I’m interested in those who have impact - real, measurable and replicable impact.  So I’m not going to talk about them, and shall instead be focusing on the projects, organizations and people who excite me.

No one can possibly disagree with the statement that we live in exciting times. And very few areas excite me more than food systems.  There are multiple mounting pressures on food systems, including population growth, the impact of changing climate on the places where our food is grown, water shortages, the impact of deforestation (often to grow food like soy, to then feed animals for meat) and the impact of growing urbanisation on ecosystems - and climate. Such things are often circular and can be mind-blowing when you start to wade in. So let’s wade in.

For the sake of this series, keep in mind that food systems have many links in the chain and start with agriculture (or labs, where relevant) and stretch all the way to post-consumption / food waste, but for the purposes of this blog, I will be focusing on food waste. 

Food waste stems from habits that are deeply ingrained and require behaviour change to address.  Behaviour change around food waste requires a collaborative approach at individual, community, business and governmental level. It’s habitual, but food waste habits are driven by a range of things, from business models that want people to buy more to labelling systems that leave people confused about food safety.  So a holistic systems focus is critical. I learned this first-hand during my food waste behaviour change projects, which have included running ‘Love Food Hate Waste,’ the national food waste reduction campaign in Scotland, as well as an innovation project for Hampshire County Council for which we won a couple of awards in 2019. I’ve also worked for Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, which gave me inside experience and insight into the complexity and vastness of food supply chains.

In this first blog in a series looking at food systems, I’m sharing a project I admire and can’t wait to see more from.

The Rockefeller Foundation’s YieldWise initiative is focused on the issue of food distribution, food waste and Sub-Sarahan Africa, where inequality of distribution is particularly acute. Consider the following:

• We currently produce ‘enough food to feed all the 1.2 billion hungry or undernourished people on the planet, yet one-third is never eaten.’ (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO))

• ‘In the U.S., nearly 40% of the food supply is wasted every year. At the same time, 41 million Americans—including 13 million children—lack consistent access to adequate food. In developing regions, more than 40 percent of fruits and vegetables spoil before they can be consumed.’

• ‘Wasted food represents wasted resources: one-fifth of our freshwater supply and nearly one-fifth of our cropland is used to produce food that does not get eaten. When that food is thrown away, it takes up 20% of our landfills where it emits tons of methane, a greenhouse gas 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Given the projected 2 billion increase in the global population by 2050, the need to minimize loss, not just maximize production, is critical.’ 

To address these and other systemic issues, the Rockefeller Foundation launched YieldWise in 2016, with the aim of showing how the world can halve food loss by 2030, to meet one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. ‘It is the first global solution to food loss and waste that works across the entire food system: from farm to store to table and beyond,’ and they’re focusing particularly on Sub-Saharan African countries, where the issue is particularly acute. 

In its first four years, the project has:

• Rescued and redistributed 100 million tons of surplus food per year to American families.

• Empowered 300,000 farmers with training and access to technologies that reduced losses by 20-30% providing additional incomes and improving food security.

• Launched food loss and waste management programs in 18 countries.

That’s pretty good going. I’m looking forward to following the project and seeing what their continued impact is and how their model might translate to other regions.

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Betsy’s Food Stuff (see what she did there?):
Betsy has led large food-related behaviour change initiatives in the UK, led the public affairs outreach on sustainability for Nestle UK, part of the world’s biggest food company and won awards in 2019 for an innovative food-related community engagement programme she directs for the UK’s biggest County Council. She has been closely involved in food supply chain projects, working with farmers in Africa and the Middle East as part of the Fairtrade system and during her work for Nestle. Her passion is reducing inequality and exploitation in food supply chains, and empowering smallholder female farmers and eliminating child labour, in particular.