The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the flaws of the food supply chain - when breakdown in logistics and transportation caused panic buying and hordes of food harvests like onions to be left to rot on farms, or milk in American farms to be poured down the drain. But food loss has been happening in food supply chains long before that. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation, in Asia, up to 40% of food is lost after harvest during handling and storage - never even making it to the shops at all. Bad handling like picking fruits and vegetables without wearing gloves, long travel durations, sometimes through many different hands and bad storage practices, like stacking food on top of each other, causes massive losses in the whole food supply chain. In fruit and vegetable-growing powerhouse Indonesia, up to 50% of fresh produce is damaged post-harvest. Social enterprise TaniHub is racing to shorten the food supply chain and help farmers grow higher quality crops. By working directly with buyers like restaurants and fruit stalls, they cut out the many middlemen and try to best match the demands of the consumers to the production capabilities of the farmers. They also work directly with farmers to help them improve post-harvest handling practices and help them understand exactly what kind of harvest is in demand. In India, heavy rainfall caused crops like onions to be damaged en route to markets to be sold. Cramped tightly together in sacks, water would seep into packaging, damaging the onions. Social enterprise Science 4 Society is using solar dehydrators to dry fresh produce like turmeric, onions and ginger, then packaging them in water-proof polymers, giving them a longer shelf-life of 1 year. A third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. More than half of those losses occur in Asia, in countries like India, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, we waste 1.3 billion tonnes of food a year globally, about one third of all the food we grow for human consumption. More than half of those losses occur in Asia, in countries like India, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Food, Wasted is a documentary series done in partnership with DBS, exploring the reasons why food waste occurs, what some groups are doing about it and offers audiences simple but effective solutions to tackle food waste. To learn more about why we need to work together towards zero food waste and how @DBS is raising awareness on this issue: https://go.dbs.com/36zvDJS ALSO WATCH: - Why are we throwing away perfectly edible food? https://youtu.be/cKjnKcCKve8 - Can Urban Farming Help Fix Our Broken Relationship With Food? https://youtu.be/Cmh3S9EpvXA For more, SUBSCRIBE to CNA INSIDER! https://cna.asia/insideryoutubesub Follow CNA INSIDER on: Instagram: https://ift.tt/2C3sZiR Facebook: https://ift.tt/2PPEuNA Website: https://cna.asia/cnainsider
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