Similarly to the causes of food waste, the solutions of food waste vary among locations.

In developing regions, the solutions are responses to the lack of proper technologies and training in these areas. They include: better roads, more cold-storage facilities, better designed market spaces, better farming education, and better farming equipment.

A Kenyan farmer at work

A Kenyan farmer at work

In developed regions, solutions to food waste are usually more social than they are  technical. They include: smaller portions, re-sealable packages, contracts between processing facilities and farmers, spoils-on dates rather than sell-by dates, billing garbage disposal by weight, required composting, removal of appearance standards in supermarkets, and public awareness campaigns (Jancer and Peek 35).

Many of these solutions have proven to be rather successful:

  • In Britain, the implementation of smaller portions and re-sealable packages have cut food waste by 21% since 2007.
Examples of the "Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables" campaign

Examples of the “Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables” campaign

  • In France in 2014, a public awareness campaign entitled “Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables” used humor to encourage people to buy disfigured produce, which is equally as nutritious as their better-looking counterparts. Within the first two days of adopting this campaign, a single French supermarket sold 1.2 tons of disfigured produce.
  • In the United Kingdom, public awareness campaigns have encouraged shoppers to make more frequent shopping trips so that people buy less food at a time and are more likely to make sure that food is used before expiration.
  • South Korea recently began billing garbage disposal by weight to encourage large companies to waste less.
  • In the United States, an app called Food Cowboy helps drivers locate nearby food banks (Gardiner).

The success of these imposed solutions proves that there is reason to be hopeful; however, much more needs to be done to address and solve this issue.

To learn more about food waste in the United States, specifically in New York City, click here.

To learn more about what can be done with wasted food, click here.

 

References

›Gardiner, Beth. “The high costs of wasted food; Despite global poverty, one third of production is never consumed.” International New York Times (2014): 11. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.

Jancer, Matt, and Katie Peek. “How the World Wastes Food.” Popular Science 285.3 (2014): 34-35. Readers’ Guide Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 15 Dec.  2014.