With the largest population in the world, China has the most mouths to feed on the planet. Consequently, food waste is a great problem in China. It is reported that more than 6% — or 35 million kgs — of the country's total food production is lost before reaching consumers, in the household and warehouse storage, transport and processing sectors. With an ever-growing population, it's imperative to deal with food waste in China.
Thankfully, policies covering food waste have been rapidly emerging in recent years. Since 2010, the Chinese government has selected 100 cities and encouraged them to explore alternative waste management systems. In 2016,China amended(修改) its Solid Waste Law to stop illegal dumping(倾倒) and promote recycling and reuse of waste, including food. Restaurants will soon be charged a fee for the amount of food waste they produce. And China is using a good food waste processing method called anaerobic digestion, a process that transforms organic waste into biogas, which can be used as energy, or turned into biofuel.
Moving forward, policymakers should consider loss and waste reduction to be as important as increasing production. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the current policy system of agricultural subsidisation(补贴) mainly includes price guarantees and subsidies for crops, production materials, seeds and agricultural machinery, which leads to local governments focusing on crop production while paying little attention to the wastage in the supply chain. There should also be increased investment in the construction of new warehouses and special funds for storage, transport, and processing technologies.
If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitting(排放) country in the world, generating about 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions. This issue is not location-specific, but an issue that affects every living thing on the planet and should therefore be seen as an essential area to take action in.
