Wasteful food manufacturing industry

A third of all the food produced worldwide goes to waste, is destroyed or is thrown away, according to a study carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and presented at the Save Food congress in Düsseldorf on Monday. However not the consumers but the manufacturing and distribution system is to blame, writes the left-liberal daily La Repubblica: "This waste is the result of structural problems. Most of it occurs during the phases which precede consumption, from harvesting to transport to packaging to distribution. This makes the calls for boosting production all the more calamitous. A deafening refrain repeated by the FAO, as well as the suppliers of genetically modified organisms and rich states that have grown used to a well-subsidised surplus production. The data confirms that the global imbalances are mainly predetermined by the production and distribution system, which treats food like any other product rather than a life source."

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