Montreal, 27 March 2018—The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) released today a comprehensive report on the state of food loss and waste in Canada, Mexico and the United States developed through the CEC’s North American Initiative on Food Waste Reduction and Recovery. Characterization and Management of Food Loss and Waste in North America documents adverse socio-economic and environmental impacts of food loss and waste, and actions that the industrial, commercial, institutional, government and nongovernmental sectors can implement to mitigate these impacts.
Food Loss and Waste in North America
The report estimates that 168 million tonnes of food are wasted in North America each year, with Americans wasting 415 kilograms (915 pounds) per capita, Canadians 396 kilograms (873 pounds) per capita, and Mexicans 249 kilograms (549 pounds) per capita. With notable differences between the three countries, the report finds that the largest share of food loss and waste in North America, 67 million tonnes/year, occurs at the consumer level. There are 52 million tonnes wasted in the industrial, commercial, and institutional levels and 49 million tonnes at the pre-harvest level. These losses represent a huge waste of social, economic and natural resources and have significant environmental impacts.
The report goes beyond highlighting the large amount of food loss and waste in the North American food supply chain. It also provides a closer examination of the primary causes and potential solutions to reduce the problem, focusing on overproduction, product damage, lack of standardized date labeling practices, lack of cold-chain infrastructure, rigid food-grading specifications, and varying customer demand and market fluctuations. A key finding is that distributors, retailers, food-rescue organizations, and food service providers have a critical role to play in realizing solutions.
“As we build a greater understanding about the impact of food loss and waste on our economy and environment, we must also commit ourselves to take action on source reduction and food rescue and recovery, at all stages of the food supply chain,” said César Rafael Chávez, CEC Executive Director. “Our aim with this report is to establish a baseline and identify an array of tools and strategies that will enable each sector of the food supply chain to make reducing these losses a reality.”
Environmental and Socio-economic Impacts of Food Loss and Waste
The report estimates that the annual environmental and socio-economic impacts of food loss and waste across North America are stark. They include:
Solutions
The report outlines several key areas of opportunity to address food loss and waste in the industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors:
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with food loss and waste, the report lists source reduction, food rescue and recovery as having the greatest potentials for savings on greenhouse gas emissions and as preferable to recycling. Disposal is identified as the least preferable approach.
Characterization and Management of Food Loss and Waste in North America was released as a complement to a recently announced CEC report, Characterization and Management of Organic Waste in North America, as part of its two-year project, the North American Initiative on Food Waste Reduction and Recovery. The project examines the impacts of food loss and waste on food security, the economy and the environment by calculating its impacts, and providing tools and education to prevent and reduce those impacts.
For more information or to read the full white paper and foundational report, please visit www.cec.org/fw.
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.