imeche global food report

7/30/2019 IMechE Global Food Report

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Imi e eieei

global foodwastE not,want not.


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With the global population estimated toreach 9.5 billion by 2075, mankind needs toensure it has the ood resources availableto eed all these people. With currentpractices wasting up to 50% o all oodproduced, engineers need to act now andpromote sustainable ways to reduce wasterom the arm to the supermarket and tothe consumer.

This report has been produced in thecontext o the Institutions strategicthemes o Energy, Environment,Education, Manuacturing andTransport, and its vision o Improvingthe world through engineering.

Published January 2013.

Design: teamkaroshi.com

It Is EstIMatEd that3050% (or 1.22 bIllIontonnEs) of allfood producEd onthE planEt Is lostbEforE rEachIng ahuMan stoMach.

Dr. Tim FoxCEng FimEChEhEAD oF EnErgy& EnVironmEnT, imEChE


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02ExEcutIvEsuMMary

17wastIng what wEalrEady havE

29contrIbutors

30rEfErEncEs

06fEEdIng a growIngglobal populatIon

09

rEsourcEs usEd Infood productIon

25what nEEdsto changE?

28rEcoMMEndatIons

contEnts


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By 2075, the United Nations mid-range projectionor global population growth predicts that humannumbers will peak at about 9.5 billion people. Thismeans that there could be an extra three billionmouths to eed by the end o the century, a periodin which substantial changes are anticipated inthe wealth, caloric intake and dietary preerenceso people in developing countries across the world.

Such a projection presents mankind with wide-ranging social, economic, environmental andpolitical issues that need to be addressed todayto ensure a sustainable uture or all. One keyissue is how to produce more ood in a worldo nite resources.

Today, we produce about our billion metric tonneso ood per annum. Yet due to poor practices inharvesting, storage and transportation, as wellas market and consumer wastage, it is estimatedthat 3050% (or 1.22 billion tonnes) o all oodproduced never reaches a human stomach.Furthermore, this gure does not refect the actthat large amounts o land, energy, ertilisersand water have also been lost in the productiono oodstus which simply end up as waste.This level o wastage is a tragedy that cannotcontinue i we are to succeed in the challenge osustainably meeting our uture ood demands.

ExEcutIvEsuMMary

fEEdIng thE 9 bIllIon:thE tragEdy of wastE

whErE wastE happEns

In 2010, the Institution o Mechanical Engineersidentied three principal emerging populationgroups across the world, based on characteristicsassociated with their current and projected stageo economic development.

Fully developed, mature, post-industrialsocieties, such as those in Europe, characterisedby stable or declining populations which areincreasing in age.

Late-stage developing nations that are currentlyindustrialising rapidly, or example China,which will experience decelerating rates opopulation growth, coupled with increasingafuence and age prole.

Newly developing countries that are beginningto industrialise, primarily in Arica, with highto very high population growth rates (typicallydoubling or tripling their populations by 2050),and characterised by a predominantly youngage prole.

Each group over the coming decades will needto address dierent issues surrounding oodproduction, storage and transportation, as well asconsumer expectations, i we are to continue toeed all our people.

Third World and Developing NationsIn less-developed countries, such as those osub-Saharan Arica and South-East Asia, wastagetends to occur primarily at the armer-producerend o the supply chain. Inecient harvesting,inadequate local transportation and poorinrastructure mean that produce is requentlyhandled inappropriately and stored underunsuitable arm site conditions.

As the development level o a country increases,so the ood loss problem generally moves urtherup the supply chain with deciencies in regional

and national inrastructure having the largestimpact. In South-East Asian countries or example,losses o rice can range rom 37% to 80% o totalproduction depending on development stage,which amounts to total wastage in the regiono about 180 million tonnes annually. In China,a country experiencing rapid development, therice loss gure is about 45%, whereas in less-developed Vietnam, rice losses between the eldand the table can amount to 80% o production.

02 Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not


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Developed NationsIn mature, ully developed countries such as theUK, more-ecient arming practices and bettertransport, storage and processing acilities ensurethat a larger proportion o the ood producedreaches markets and consumers. However,characteristics associated with modern consumerculture mean produce is oten wasted throughretail and customer behaviour.

Major supermarkets, in meeting consumerexpectations, will oten reject entire crops operectly edible ruit and vegetables at the armbecause they do not meet exacting marketingstandards or their physical characteristics, suchas size and appearance. For example, up to 30%o the UKs vegetable crop is never harvestedas a result o such practices. Globally, retailersgenerate 1.6 million tonnes o ood waste annuallyin this way.

O the produce that does appear in thesupermarket, commonly used sales promotionsrequently encourage customers to purchaseexcessive quantities which, in the case operishable oodstus, inevitably generateswastage in the home. Overall between 30%and 50% o what has been bought in developedcountries is thrown away by the purchaser.

Controlling and reducing the level o wastageis requently beyond the capability o theindividual armer, distributor or consumer, sinceit depends on market philosophies, security oenergy supply, quality o roads and the presenceo transport hubs. These are all related more tosocietal, political and economic norms, as wellas better-engineered inrastructure, rather thanto agriculture. In most cases the sustainablesolutions needed to reduce waste are well known.The challenge is transerring this know-how towhere it is needed, and creating the political

and social environment which encourages bothtranser and adoption o these ideas to take place.

Wasting ood means losing not only lie-supportingnutrition but also precious resources, includingland, water and energy. These losses will beexacerbated by uture population growth anddietary trends that are seeing a shit away romgrain-based oods and towards consumption oanimal products. As nations become more afuentin the coming decades through development, percapita caloric intake rom meat consumption isset to rise 40% by mid-century. These productsrequire signicantly more resource to produce. Asa global society thereore, tackling ood waste willhelp contribute towards addressing a number okey resource issues:

Eective Land UsageOver the last ve decades, improved armingtechniques and technologies have helped tosignicantly increase crop yields along with a12% expansion o armed land use. However,with global ood production already utilisingabout 4.9Gha o the 10Gha usable land suraceavailable, a urther increase in arming areawithout impacting unavourably on what remainso the worlds natural ecosystems appearsunlikely. The challenge is that an increase inanimal-based production will require greater landand resource requirement, as livestock armingdemands extensive land use. One hectare oland can, or example, produce rice or potatoesor 1922 people per annum. The same area willproduce enough lamb or bee or only one or twopeople. Considerable tensions are likely to emerge,as the need or ood competes with demands orecosystem preservation and biomass production asa renewable energy source.

Water UsageOver the past century, resh water abstractionor human use has increased at more than double

the rate o population growth. Currently about3.8 trillion m3 o water is used by humans perannum. About 70% o this is consumed by theglobal agriculture sector, and the level o use willcontinue to rise over the coming decades. Indeed,depending on how ood is produced and thevalidity o orecasts or demographic trends, thedemand or water in ood production could reach1013 trillion m3 annually by mid-century. This is2.5 to 3.5 times greater than the total human useo resh water today.

bEttEr usE of ourfInItE rEsourcEs

03www.imeche.org/environment


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In south East asIancountrIEs, lossEsof rIcE can rangEfroM 3780% of thEEntIrE productIon.



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Rising population combined with improvednutrition standards and shiting dietarypreerences will exert pressure or increases inglobal ood supply.

Engineers, scientists and agriculturalists havethe knowledge, tools and systems that will assistin achieving productivity increases. However,pressure will grow on nite resources o land,energy and water. Although increasing yields inhungry countries is an appropriate response to anemerging ood crisis, to ensure we can sustainablymeet the ood needs o over three billion extrapeople on the planet by 2075, the Institutiono Mechanical Engineers calls or initiatives tobe taken to reduce the substantial quantity oood wasted annually around the world. Thepotential to provide 60100% more ood by simplyeliminating losses, while simultaneously reeingup land, energy and water resources or otheruses, is an opportunity that should not be ignored.Factors aecting waste relate to engineeredinrastructure, economic activity, vocationaltraining, knowledge transer, culture and politics.In order to begin tackling the challenge, theInstitution recommends that:

1. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation

(FAO) works with the international engineeringcommunity to ensure governments o developednations put in place programmes that transerengineering knowledge, design know-how,and suitable technology to newly developingcountries. This will help improve producehandling in the harvest, and immediate post-harvest stages o ood production.

2. Governments o rapidly developing countriesincorporate waste minimisation thinkinginto the transport inrastructure and storageacilities currently being planned, engineeredand built.

3. Governments in developed nations devise

and implement policy that changes consumerexpectations. These should discourageretailers rom wasteul practices that lead tothe rejection o ood on the basis o cosmeticcharacteristics, and losses in the home due toexcessive purchasing by consumers.

rEcoMMEndatIons

Better irrigation can dramatically improve cropyield and about 40% o the worlds ood supplyis currently derived rom irrigated land. However,water used in irrigation is oten sourcedunsustainably, through boreholes sunk into poorlymanaged aquiers. In some cases governmentdevelopment programmes and international aidinterventions exacerbate this problem. In addition,we continue to use wasteul systems, such asfood or overhead spray, which are dicult tocontrol and lose much o the water to evaporation.Although the drip or trickle irrigation methods aremore expensive to install, they can be as much as33% more ecient in water use as well as beingable to carry ertilisers directly to the root.

In processing o oods ater the agricultural stage,there are large additional uses o water that needto be tackled in a world o growing demand. Thisis particularly crucial in the case o meatproduction, where bee uses about 50 times morewater than vegetables. In the uture, more-eective washing techniques, managementprocedures, and recycling and purication o waterwill be needed to reduce wastage.

Energy UsageEnergy is an essential resource across theentire ood production cycle, with estimatesshowing an average o 710 calories o inputbeing required in the production o one calorieo ood. This varies dramatically dependingon crop, rom three calories or plant crops to35 calories in the production o bee. Since mucho this energy comes rom the utilisation o ossiluels, wastage o ood potentially contributes tounnecessary global warming as well as inecientresource utilisation.

In the modern industrialised agricultural process which developing nations are moving towards

in order to increase uture yields energy usagein the making and application o agrochemicalssuch as ertilisers and pesticides represents thesingle biggest component. Wheat productiontakes 50% o its energy input or these twoitems alone. Indeed, on a global scale, ertilisermanuacturing consumes about 35% o theworlds annual natural gas supply. With productionanticipated to increase by 25% between now and2030, sustainable energy sourcing will becomean increasingly major issue. Energy to powermachinery, both on the arm and in the storageand processing acilities, together with the directuse o uel in eld mechanisation and producetransportation, adds to the energy total, which

currently represents about 3.1% o annual globalenergy consumption.



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fEEdIng a growIngglobal populatIon

The worlds human population is currentlyestimated to be in excess o seven billion people[1]and median variant projections o growth overthe 21st century rom the UN suggest that thenumber might peak at about 9.5 billion towards2075.[2] I the less conservative projections romthe UN are realised, this peak could be as high as14.2 billion.[3] However, such overall numbers donot reveal the spatial variation and demographictrends that might be expected to emerge aschanges take place across the globe. Indeed, thereare considerable dierences in the growth rates,age composition and socio-economic outcomesprojected or dierent regions o the worldduring the next ew decades. In this regard, theInstitution o Mechanical Engineers has previouslyidentied three principal emerging groups basedon characteristics associated with their currentand projected stage o economic development.[2]These are:

Fully developed, mature, post-industrialsocieties, such as those in Europe, characterisedby stable or declining populations increasing inage prole.

Late-stage developing nations that are currentlyindustrialising rapidly, or example China,which will experience decelerating rates opopulation growth, coupled with increasingafuence and increasing age prole.

Newly developing countries that are beginningto or about to industrialise, primarily in Arica,with high to very high population growth rates(typically doubling or tripling their populationsby 2050), characterised by a predominantlyyoung age prole.

It is rom the last grouping that the principalcontribution to 21st century population growth isprojected to arise.

Meeting the ood requirements o an increasingnumber o people, as we move towards 9.5 billion,will present many signicant physical, politicaland socio-economic challenges. Finding acceptablesolutions to these will require engineers toshare engineering practice knowledge widelyin society, and exercise ingenuity in providinginnovative sustainable approaches, alongside thecontributions rom scientists and agriculturalists.The overall scale o the challenge is indicatedby other long-term projections, based uponpopulation growth, which suggest a 70% increasein the demand or agricultural production willhave emerged by mid-century.[4] This will becompounded by a signicant shit away roma predominance o grain-based diets towardssubstantial consumption o animal products, asnations become more afuent[5]. Indeed, orecastshave indicated a potential increase during the nextour decades o about 40% in global average percapita caloric intake through meat consumptionrom 440kcal to 620kcal per day,[6] with largeregional variations linked to the stage odevelopment o individual countries. For example,in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Arica, annual percapita meat consumption by weight is projectedto increase by 55% and 42% respectively throughto 2030, whereas in the ully industrialisedcountries, including Europe and North America,the projected increase is only 14%.[7]

To date, history has shown that in responseto population growth and dietary changes,engineering and science consistently deliveradvancements that enable increased yieldsand production to meet demand.[2] For examplebetween 1960 and 2000, production o rice, maizeand wheat grew by 6688% in Asia and LatinAmerica[8]. This three-old increase in yields ocereal crops was achieved by the introduction ohigh-yield varieties, the application o chemicallyengineered ertilisers and advancements in crop

management techniques.

Over the same period,average global meat consumption in terms oweight per capita per year increased 50%, witha doubling and tripling in East and North Aricaand East Asia respectively[7]. Indeed, it is over200 years since, with the global populationat about one seventh o what it is today, theReverend Thomas Malthus made his now amousprediction, that sooner or later urther populationgrowth would be checked by amine, diseaseand widespread mortality.[9] This predictionwas echoed in the work o Paul Ehrlich in the1960s[10] and is yet to be shown to be relevantin the context o human ingenuity, adaptabilityand inventiveness.



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There are identiable and known opportunitiestoday to increase yields into the uture.[11] Insub-Saharan Arica or example, where thelargest population increases are anticipated,work on the Millennium Villages[12] initiative byNew Yorks Columbia University has shown thatthrough addressing the issues o depletion osoil nutrients, it is possible to more than triplecereal grain yields rom one tonne per hectare(where it has been since the 1960s) to beyondthree tonnes per hectare.[8] This has been largelyachieved through closer control o ertiliserapplication, improved cultivars (high-yield seeds)and the application o up-to-date engineering andagronomic knowledge. For those villages involved,this has meant that their annual ood productionhas increased in excess o their caloric needs. [13]Similarly, the implementation by the Malawigovernment o incentives or improved cultivarscombined with ertiliser application, has led to atripling o maize yields, transorming the nationrom a ood aid recipient to a ood exporter andood aid donor.[13] These and many other examplessuggest that in sub-Saharan Arica, ood securitycan be substantially improved into the uturethrough an ecologically sound Green Revolutionbased on science and engineering.[13]

However, although there is a consensus amongagriculturalists and policymakers that increasingagricultural productivity in hungry countries isan appropriate response to an emerging worldood crisis,[13] several actors have the potential toobstruct progress. These include:

The area o land available or agriculture willreduce due to actors including environmentaldegradation, stresses related to climatechange, restrictions aimed at preservation oecosystems, and competition with other land-use demands such as biomass-derived energyinitiatives, urbanisation, transport, industrialand leisure needs.

Increased competition or available water romurban developments and industry will reducethe quantities available or crop and livestockproduction in a world o uncertain rainallpatterns due to the eects o global warming.

Energy costs, particularly or ossil uels, arelikely to rise substantially with increasingdemand and reducing availability o easilyexploitable secure supplies. This applies touels used directly to power eld machines,processing equipment, transportation andstorage acilities as well as to the signicantamount o natural gas that is used in theproduction o ertiliser and pesticides.

Problems in recruiting labour to work inagriculture as nations develop and manyalternative occupations arise, whichare considered to be more attractive byyounger generations.

Although solutions to these issues may emergeover time, in addition to a ocus on increased oodproduction, it would be prudent to develop andimplement a range o approaches in parallel thatcan help mitigate their potential impact. One suchapproach is to recognise the amount o ood thatis wasted annually across the world and work tomake substantial reductions in this quantity.

The total quantity o ood produced globally on anannual basis is currently about our billion metrictonnes,[14] o which it is estimated that 3050%,or 1.22 billion metric tonnes, is lost or wastedevery year beore consumption.[14,15] This enormouswaste o ood is due to the combined eects oregional deciencies in agricultural knowledge,inadequacies in engineered inrastructure andmanagement practices, as well as wasteulpolitical, economic and societal behaviours. Ithe world population is projected to increaseby about 35% to a peak o 9.5 billion in 2075,and eliminating this waste has the potential toprovide 60100% more ood or consumption,then in simple terms there is a clear opportunityto provide a major contribution towards meetingthe growing demand or ood in the 21st centurymerely through waste reduction and elimination.Furthermore, due to the large demand thatood production puts on other natural resourcesincluding land, water and energy, such anapproach oers signicant benets in terms osustainability and reduced environmental risk.

The Institution o Mechanical Engineersrecognises that the only sustainable strategy orproviding sucient ood or uture generations

is not only to seek the most ecient andeective methods o ood production, but also toconcentrate eort on ensuring that as much othat ood as possible is ully utilised by the humanpopulation. This report thereore considers rom anengineering perspective, key actors contributingto the current unacceptable level o ood wasteacross the world, as well as the wider implicationso these or sustainably supporting the projectedpopulation growth in the 21st century, and presentspractical solutions to the key issues along withrecommendations or change.



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ovEr 2.5 trIllIon M3of watEr Is consuMEdby thE global

agrIculturalsEctor Each yEar.



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The global ood supply system is an extensiveworldwide network engaging a broad range oindividuals and businesses including armers,processors, logistics specialists and traders,ranging in scale rom multinational chains tothe corner shop and market stall. Supported byengineers, technologists and scientists, all playtheir roles in producing a perishable product anddelivering it in good condition to the consumer.The wide range o oodstus handled by thesystem include those derived rom plants suchas cereal grains, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables andruit, and those derived rom animals includingmeat, eggs and dairy products.

Farmers and horticulturalists operating in everyregion o the world produce a vast quantity oood, totalling about our billion tonnes o edibleproduct per year. In doing so they utiliselarge quantities o a variety o resources andraw materials (oten reerred to as inputs). Manyo these inputs are rom nite sources, and inmany cases ood production is in competition withother human endeavours or their use. Wastingood thereore results in an unneccessary andunsustainable use o these resources. This sectionconsiders the resources used in ood productionand the scale o their use. In addition to theobvious items o land, people and water, energyis used to drive agricultural eld machinery,greenhouses, irrigation systems, storage acilities,transportation and the production o ertilisersand pesticides.

rEsourcEs usEd Infood productIon

Global ood production currently utilisesapproximately 4.9Gha o the 14.8Gha o landsurace area on the planet, though only about10Gha o the latter is capable o supportingproductive biomass (ie not desert, tundra,mountains etc) or agriculture.[16,17] Thus some50% o the available suitable land is alreadyappropriated. The amount o land used or humanhabitation, in the orm o towns and cities, isrealtively small at 0.03Gha and, despite large-scale urbanisation in the uture, it is unlikelyto become signicant in proportional terms.Although this might suggest that there is plentyo room or the expansion o ood production, itneeds to be recognised that the balance o unusedland currently supports the worlds remainingnatural ecosystems. Considerable tensionsare likely to emerge as competition developsor use o available land between the need orood production, demands or preservation oecosystems and the desire to produce biomass asa source o renewable energy.[17]

During the past ew decades, the increasingdemand or ood associated with a period ounprecedented global population growth has beenlargely met by increasing yields and, to a lesserextent, expansion o armed land (historically theroute to increased production). In this regard, asyields have improved substantially, through theimplementation o improved cultivars, engineeringand eld practices, increased productionbetween 1960 and 2000 was achieved with arelatively modest land-use expansion o only12%.[17] However, emerging evidence suggests asubstantial global trend in developing nations,o dietary preerences shiting away rom cerealsand grains to consumption o animal products[5](or example, in China between 1981 and 2004,the annual per capita grain consumption declinedrom 145kg to 78kg in the cities, while over thesame period intake o meat products rose rom

20kg to 29kg per year).

[18]

This indicates that thechallenge o increased production will becomemuch harder in the coming decades, particularlyi substantial damage to the worlds ecosystemsthrough expansion o agricultural land area is tobe avoided.

land



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The core o the challenge is ound in the act thatin terms o land-use, agricultural ood productionbased on livestock is ar less ecient than thatbased on crops, largely because only about 3% othe eed energy consumed by livestock remainsin edible animal tissue.[17] Thus, animal-basedagriculture needs considerably greater areas oland to output product o equivalent energy value;or example while one hectare o land is neededto produce sucient rice or potatoes to eed 19 to22 people per year, the same area would produceenough lamb or bee to supply only one or twopeople. For this reason, 78% o current agriculturalland is already used or livestock production, eitheror direct grazing or eed crops.

Forecasts or the amount o land that will beneeded to deliver sucient ood to eed theincreasing population through the 21st centuryare highly dependent on assumptions maderegarding trends in these dietary preerences.Indeed recent work in this area[17] has attempted tocomprehensively and realistically analyse a rangeo possible scenarios through to 2050, rangingrom a high-meat consumption: low productioneciency worse case, to one characterisedby a best case o low-meat consumption: highproduction eciency. In the ormer the totalland use area under cultivation would requireexpansion to 8.83Gha by 2050 to meet theood demand, which at about 88% o availableproductive land is a considerable threat to theworlds ecosystems, whereas in the latter acontraction to 4.13Gha would occur, representingabout a 15% reduction on todays gure.

In these scenarios, high production eciencyconsiders a sustained annual yield growth o 1%and increased recycling o wastes and residues,together with adoption o a diet composed o asubstantial amount o pork and poultry productwhich characteristically has a less-demanding

land-use requirement. Given current trends in bothdietary preerences and production eciency,it isconcievable that something closer to a high meatconsumption/high production eciency outcomemay emerge and in that case the land-use gureor ood production would, ollowing a 2025 peako 5.26Gha, all back to around present levels at4.82Gha in 2050. In the context o a productiveland resource o about 10Gha, such an outcomemight appear reasonable. However, adding theland-use demands that will emerge rom currentaspirations around the world to increase biomassproduction or energy sourcing, potentially up to30% o global primary energy by 2030 comparedwith about 10% today,[19] competing needs or ood

and energy are likely to dene the key land-usetensions in the coming decades.

All branches o agriculture and horticulturedepend on a reliable supply o water delivered bynatural rainall, watercourses such as springs,ponds, rivers and streams, or by engineeredmeans including irrigation, hydroponicsand others. Over the past century, humanappropriation o resh water has historicallyexpanded at more than twice the rate opopulation increase. An estimated 3.8 trillion m3o water are now withdrawn or human use eachyear,[20] equivalent to the contents o 1.5 billionOlympic-sized swimming pools. The bulk o thisabstracted water, about 70%, is taken by theagricultural sector.[2]

It takes substantial quantities o water to growand harvest ood, and even more water is requiredi the ood is processed beore consumption.Assuming that the ood supply or an averageperson is 3,000kcal per day by 2050 and is derived80% rom plants and 20% rom animals, the waterneeded to produce that quantity o ood will bearound 1,300 m3 per capita per year[21] (eg halthe contents o an Olympic-sized swimming poolper person each year). It has been estimated thatwater requirements to meet ood demand in 2050might, depending on how ood is produced andthe validity o current assumptions on uturetrends in population and diet, be between 10 and13.5 trillion m3 per year, or about triple what iscurrently abstracted in total or human use.[22]

While detailed estimates o the waterrequirements or specic crops and livestockproducts vary considerably, most studies agreeon the main points. Essentially oodstus derivedrom crops consume a small raction o watercompared to those derived rom animals. Withinthe crop category, potatoes, groundnuts andonions are quite ecient in terms o their use owater. For every cubic metre o water applied incultivation, the potato produces 5.60kcal o dietary

energy, compared to 3.86kcal calories in maize,2.3kcal in wheat and just 2kcal in rice. [23] For thesame cubic metre o water, the potato yields150g o protein, double that o wheat and maize,and 540mg o calcium, double that o wheat andour times that o rice.For example, dependingon climate, variety, agricultural practices, lengtho the growing season and degree o onwardprocessing, between 500 and 4,000 litres o waterare required to produce 1kg o wheat.[24] But toproduce 1kg o meat requires between 5,000 and20,000 litres o water.[25] In general overall termsthe energy content o ood materials varies romapproximately 2kcal per cubic metre o water inthe case o plant-based ood and 0.25kcal per cubic

metre or ood derived rom animals.[26]

watEr



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IrrigationIrrigation is delivered through engineering andhas the potential to dramatically increase oodproduction. Currently it is estimated that about40% o the worlds ood supply is produced onirrigated land that extends to approximately 17%o available agricultural land.[27] Expansion andmore eective use o existing irrigation schemeswill be necessary in uture i the current per capitaood supply is to be maintained.[28] However, thesystems used or irrigation in many countriesare in poor condition or use water ineciently.Where they rely on pumping, wasting water alsowastes energy.

Despite the act that food or overhead sprayirrigation systems are dicult to control andwaste water (or example the continued use ooverhead sprays results in large quantities owater being lost through evaporation, while poorlymanaged irrigation increases the risk o loss olarge areas o productive land to salinity), manycountries still persist in their use. Designs basedon drip or trickle irrigation require more capitalinvestment than food or spray techniques, butstudies[29] have shown that it can be 33% moreeective than those two cheaper methods interms o crop produced or each unit o waterapplied. Drip or trickle irrigation also oers theurther benet that it can be engineered to enableertilisers to be applied directly to the roots othe plants where they provide greatest benet,without the necessity or specialist ertiliserapplication machines. Improved methods oland preparation or irrigation, including the useo GPS-controlled precision levelling systems,can urther enhance the perormance o dripirrigation systems.

In some countries, or example Saudi Arabia,India and Pakistan, sel-suciency programmeshave subsidised the cost o energy or irrigation,

or in extreme cases provided ree energy.

[30]

Thisrequently encourages waste o both water andenergy while denying water to villages and otherarms that need this precious resource.

For a number o years, Saudi Arabia pursueda policy o sel-suciency in wheat and dairyproducts,[31] heavily subsidising the entire processo bread production and the keeping o dairycattle. Ever deeper boreholes were required toaccess water or large-scale irrigation schemes inorder to grow wheat and alala in an arid desert.Even though this was successul rom a technicalperspective, it was not sustainable due to thehigh cost o pumping water rom great depths andthe lack o an aquier replenishment programme.The latter is an essential requirement or thesustainable engineering and management ounderground water supplies.[2] Farmers in manycountries have traditionally relied on variousorms o well to supply irrigation water; howeveror success this is highly dependent on the rate onatural or articial replenishment.

India and Pakistan have suered rom similarchallenges. The Indian state subsidised the costo electrical power or irrigation, which resultedin over-application and wasted water; since thewater essentially had no cost, it had no value. InPakistan, some Central Arican states and partso the Middle East, the prolieration o boreholesoten unded by international agencies, drainedaquiers to the extent that only saline water couldbe produced.

Demands or irrigation water requently competedirectly with those o urban populations andindustry. The Eastern States o the USA haveexperienced bitter disputes between armersand urban populations over water rights, andthis situation is being repeated in SouthernAustralia [32] In the Middle East, there have beenlong-running disputes over access to waterbetween Turkey and Syria,[33] Palestine andJordan.[34] It is very likely that such disputes willbecome more common and bitterly contested inthe uture, particularly as climate change induced

stresses increase

[35]

.

by 2050, bEtwEEn 1013.5trIllIon M3 of watEr

May bE nEEdEd In foodproductIon Each yEar.



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Beyond the agricultural stage o ood production,subsequent processing o basic oodstus canconsume considerable additional quantities owater. For example, a recent study in the USAdiscovered that companies processing a range ovegetables consumed between 13 and 64 tonnes owater or each tonne o vegetables.[36] In the caseo ruits, consumption ranged rom 3.5 to 32 tonneso water or each tonne o ruit. Table 1 showsa detailed listing, rom a recent Europe-basedstudy,[37] o the water consumption gures orthe processing o a wide range o ood products.The large quantities typically involved or eachproduct suggest that there is scope or mechanicalengineering to reduce the volume o waterrequired, or example through the introductiono more-ecient washing systems, improvedwater recycling and other advanced measures,[38]as well as the introduction o more-eectivemanagement procedures.

Table 1: Typical values or the volume o waterrequired to produce common oodstus[37]

Foodstu Quantity

Water

consumption

Apple 1 kg 822 litres

Banana 1 kg 790 litres

Bee 1 kg 15,415 litres

Beer 1 250ml glass 74 litres

Bio-diesel 1 litre 11,397 litres

Bread 1 kg 1,608 litres

Butter 1 kg 5,553 litres

Cabbage 1 kg 237 litres

Cheese 1 kg 3,178 litres

Chicken meat 1 kg 4,325 litres

Chocolate 1 kg 17,196 litres

Egg 1 196 litres

Milk 1 250ml glass 255 litres

Olives 1 kg 3,025 litres

Pasta (dry) 1 kg 1,849 litres

Pizza 1 unit 1,239 litresPork 1 kg 5,988 litres

Potatoes 1 kg 287 litres

Rice 1 kg 2,497 litres

Sheep Meat 1 kg 10,412 litres

Tea 1 250 ml cup 27 litres

Tomato 1 kg 214 litres

Wine 1 x 250ml glass 109 litres

Cotton 1 @ 250g 2,495 litres

procEssIng



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Energy is a key engineered resource across allood production stages and it has been estimatedthat, i the contribution consumed in processingand transporting ood is included, it takes anaverage input o 710 calories o energy to produceone calorie o edible ood.[39] Much o this energycurrently comes rom ossil uel sources, whichmakes it problematic with regard to its potentialcontribution to global warming and subsequentclimate change. The overall 710 calorie averagegure does not however reveal the dierencesbetween plant-based and meat-based oods.For example about 3 calories o energy areneeded to create 1 calorie o edible plant material,whereas grain-ed bee requires some 35 caloriesor every calorie o bee produced.[39] This clearlyhas implications or sustainability i globaldietary trends continue to move towards highmeat content.

Table 2 illustrates the breakdown o energyconsumption or each component or the case o atypical wheat production process.[40] This clearlyshows that the single biggest energy input inmodern industrialised arable arming is in the useo agrochemicals (ertilisers, pesticides, growthagents etc). As much as 50% o energy used in thisexample o a modern engineered ood system goestowards the production o articial ertilisers andpesticides. These chemicals are absolutely criticalto the supply side o the equation. Increasedertiliser application has in the past beenresponsible or at least 50% o yield increases.[41]

Table 2: Typical values or energyconsumed in wheat production[40]

Source/application MJ/ha

Human 6 (0.03%)

Seed 1,266 (5.60%)

Fertiliser 10,651 (47.20%)

Pesticides 911 (4.00%)

Electricity 4,870 (21.60%)

Machinery 1,741 (7.70%)

Fuel 3,121 (13.83%)

Total 22,566

EnErgy

FertiliserLarge quantities o chemical or mineral ertilisersare used in commercial agriculture. Generallythese contain nitrogen compounds primarilyanhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate or urea,which are powerul stimulants to the growth ogreen plants together with varying proportionso compounds containing phosphorous andpotassium, requently reerred to as phosphateand potash. In the period 1961 to 1999, the use onitrogenous and phosphate ertilisers increasedby 638% and 203%,[42] respectively, while theproduction o pesticides increased by 854%.[43]

Although phosphate and potash compoundsare typically obtained by mining minerals,nitrogen compounds are manuactured romammonia using the Haber process. In the latter,atmospheric nitrogen is combined with hydrogenobtained largely rom natural gas though otherhydrocarbons sources such as coal (particularlyin China) and oil are also used. Since 950m3 onatural gas is required to produce each tonneo ammonia (global production o ertiliser iscurrently some 178 million tonnes per year),[44]the ertiliser manuacturing industry consumesroughly 35% o the entire world natural gasproduction, equivalent to 12% o the worldsannual energy supply.[45] Producing anddistributing nitrogen ertilisers currently requiresan average o 62 litres o ossil uels per hectare.Given that the amount o land under modernarming methods is anticipated to increase by12.5% in the coming three decades,[46] as a resulto the transer o engineering and agriculturalpractice knowledge to developing countries, itis projected that demand or this resource willincrease substantially by mid-century. The totalannual demand or ertiliser has been estimatedto increase 25% by 2030 to 223 million tonnes, owhich some 62% would be nitrogenous.[47]



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StorageFrequently, crops as they are harvested rom theeld are not in a suitable condition to be stored orlong periods. In many countries, grains includingwheat, maize and rice are too damp or directtranser to storage, so need to be dried. Dryinglarge quantities o material requires substantialamounts o energy to be delivered throughengineered inrastructure, particularly in the ormo electricity or ossil uels such as oil or gas. Oncedried and placed in storage, the condition o thestored commodity must be maintained, whichis a urther demand on energy supplies. Mouldsand ungi will quickly aect most oodstus itheir moisture content is too high, but since theycannot reproduce at low temperatures, the oodcan be stored quite saely i the temperature isbelow a critical level;maintaining that level needsadditional energy to provide heating or cooling,depending on the local conditions.

ProcessingFood processing also uses large amountso electricity and/or ossil uels, and can beremarkably inecient in terms o the energyconsumed relative to the energy deliveredto the consumer.Unortunately the detailedanalysis o actual energy usage in processingis highly individual to a specic ood type,dicult to ascertain and not amenable to broadgeneralisation. As a convenient illustration,Table 3 is presented or a typical ast-oodburger sandwich.[48]

The total engineered energy consumption o theburger sandwich is high in comparison to manyresh oods, since several o its componentsundergo processing and are prepared remotely,then chilled or rozen, beore transportation ordistribution and thawed subsequent to reheating.Since the end product contributes 540kcal or2.3MJ to the consumers diet,[49] it typically usesbetween three and eight times more energy in itsproduction and distribution than it delivers to theconsumer as ood.

Table 3:Tpcal ee csupt f ua eeeed

ee (e t deved dectl b te pduct f atue)f cpets f a tpcal fast-fd bue.[48]

Low MJ High MJ

Bread 74g 0.96 3.20

Burger 90g 5.60 10.00

Lettuce 0.09 4.36

Onions 0.06 0.12

Pickled Cucumber 0.05 0.06

Cheese 0.54 0.90

Total 7.30 18.64

It is important to note that even with thisstandardised ood item there can be considerablevariations in energy consumption, dependingon how or where each o the ingredients isproduced. For example, lettuces grown in agreenhouse generally require a much greaterinput o engineered energy than do those grownin a eld, but variations to this norm will result ithe vegetable is being transported a signicantdistance rom soil bed to outlet. As one exampleo this, some 90% o the entire US lettuce crop is

produced in the Salinas valley in Caliornia, andtransported countrywide by rerigerated truck oreven aircrat.



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MachinesModern agricultural production is heavily relianton machinery, and this represents another bigconsumer o energy in the ood productionchain. As engineers have improved the designand perormance o machines, many large-scalearms in the most-developed countries have beenable to unction with smaller teams o peopleoperating increasingly powerul and sophisticatedequipment. In this regard, precision GPS systemshave been in use since the late 1980s and acilitateprecise control o many eld operations throughintelligent machines communicating with system-equipped tractors that incorporate multipleelectronics. This high-powered equipment enableseld operations to be carried out eectively, andwith the minimum use o labour, at the mostappropriate time or the crop.

In developing countries, manual labour anddraught animals are increasingly being replacedby smaller machines engineered or low-costmanuacture. Two-wheel-drive walking tractors,oten equipped with a range o implements orcultivation, seeding, harvesting and transport,have been in common use in Asia or many years,but are now being adopted in large numbersthroughout Arica. Diesel engines are also beingused in increasing numbers to provide poweror small-scale processing plants such as mills,where they replace traditional manual methods.Agriculture currently consumes approximately3.1% o total global energy consumption, this isdivided 2.5% in developed countries and 0.6% indeveloping countries.[50] As the rate o adoptiono agricultural machines increases in developingcountries, both the total proportion o agriculturalenergy use and the component used in developingcountries are likely to rise.

Almost all eld equipment is powered by dieselengines. These include arm tractors, harvestingmachines and a wide range o mechanicalhandling and transport equipment. In addition,diesel-powered irrigation pumps are vitallyimportant but consume large quantities o energy.All o this contributes to a global consumption byagriculture o approximately 120 million tonnes odiesel uel annually.[51]

As populations become more concentratedin urban areas, ewer people are availableand willing to work as labourers in primaryagriculture, which is a major driving orce inarm mechanisationand the use o engineeredinrastructure. The use o machinery can beexpected to expand signicantly in uture yearsbut its adoption may be constrained by theavailability o knowledge, political will and thecost o uels.

agrIculturEcurrEntly consuMEsapproxIMatEly 3.1%

of total globalEnErgy consuMptIon.



18/35

In IndIa, 21 MIllIontonnEs of whEat IswastEd Each yEarduE to InadEquatEstoragE anddIstrIbutIon systEMs.



19/35

wastIng whatwE alrEady havE

Reducing the current level o ood waste, whichon a global scale represents up to 50% o the4 billion tonnes o ood production every year,[14,15]oers a signicant opportunity or helping to meetthe challenge o eeding the worlds increasingpopulation, as well as conserving diminishingresources that could be utilised or other humanactivities. Finding those opportunities, however,requires an understanding o the pattern and scaleo wastage. This varies as a unction o economicdevelopment stage[52], since many actors aectingwastage relate to engineered inrastructure,economic activity, knowledge transer andlevel o vocational training, rather than purelyagricultural policies.

In less-developed countries, such as those osub-Saharan Arica and South-East Asia, wastagetends primarily to occur at the armer-producerend o the supply chain.[52,53] In this regard,inecient harvesting, inadequately engineeredlocal transport systems and deciencies ininrastructure mean that crops are requentlyhandled poorly and stored under unsuitable armsite conditions or in inadequate local acilities.As a result, bruising, moulds and rodents destroyor at least degrade large quantities o oodmaterial, and substantial amounts o oodstussimply spill rom badly maintained vehicles or arebruised as vehicles negotiate poorly maintainedroads. In South-East Asian countries, or example,losses o rice range rom 37% to 80% o the entireproduction, depending on development stage,and total about 180 million tonnes annually.[54]

In China, a country experiencing rapiddevelopment, the gure is about 45% whereasin less-developed Vietnam, rice losses betweenthe eld and the table can amount to 80% oproduction.[54] Cumulatively this loss representsnot only the removal o ood that could otherwiseeed the growing population, but also a waste ovaluable land, energy and water resources.

In the case o water or example, about550 billion m3 o water is wasted globally ingrowing crops that never reach the consumer;[55]

this water could be used or other human activityor to support natural ecosystems.

Wastage tends to move up the distributionchain as the standard o development improvesand regional and national transport, storageand distribution acilities ail to match theimprovements made at the arm level. This is aparticular issue in transition countries, includingIndia and the ormer Soviet Republics, whichrequire massive investments in the ood logisticschain.Many o the grain stores in the ormer SovietRepublics were engineered and constructed inthe 1930s, and cold-storage warehouses and oodprocessing acilities date back to the 1950s. As aresult they are inecient by modern engineeringstandards, and requently both insanitary andunsae. The current practices in the developedworld o preserving ood by chilling and reezinginstead o canning and drying, place signicantdemands on the integrity o inrastructure, whichexacerbates this problem. Maintaining a coldchain or resh or chilled ood is signicantlymore demanding o engineering than merelytransporting and storing a relatively robustproduct such as a can. It demands the engineeringo reliable electricity supplies, transport andinterchanges, plus measurement, monitoring andcontinual management, which is oten beyond thetechnical capacity o transitioning countries.

Moving rom canning to reezing demandsenergy inrastructure

The process o canning or preserving oodproducts in hermetically sealed jars requiressignicant energy input at the processingplant, but once the package is sealed, nourther energy is required to preserve the ood.Unortunately, although chilling or reezingproduces a ood product that retains more oits original nutrients, this type o processedood needs a secure cold chain throughoutits distribution and storage, right down tohousehold level, necessitating the provision o

a reliable energy inrastructure to every store,vehicle and home.



20/35

In mature, ully developed countries, more-ecient arming practices and better-engineeredtransport, storage and processing acilities ensurethat a much greater proportion o the ood productreaches the locality where it will be consumed.However, at this level behavioural characteristicsassociated with consumerism, excess wealth andmass marketing lead to wastage[52,53]. Key pointsat which these losses occur include in the eldprior to harvesting, at the supermarket and inthe consumers home. For example, substantialquantities o perectly edible ruit and vegetablesare rejected by the major buyers at the armin the pre-harvest stage because they do notmeet marketing standards or their physicalcharacteristics, such as size and appearance. Forthat produce that does appear in the supermarket,strategies or sales promotion requently encouragecustomers to purchase excessive quantities which,in the case o perishable oodstus, inevitablygenerates wastage in the home[52].

Overall, wastage rates in vegetables and ruitare considerably higher than or grains. In theUK, a recently published study[56] has shown that46% o potatoes grown is not delivered to theretail market. The details revealed that 6% waslost in the eld, 12% was discarded on initialsorting, 5% was lost in store, 1% was lost inpost-storage inspection and 22% was lost dueto rejection ater washing. A similar survey[57] inIndia showed that at least 40% o all its ruit andvegetables is lost between grower and consumerdue to lack o rerigerated transport, poor roads,inclement weather and corruption. Controllingand reducing the level o wastage is requentlybeyond the capability o the individual armer,distributor or consumer, since it depends onmarket philosophies, security o power supply,quality o roads and the presence or absenceo transport hubs. These are all related moreto societal, political and economic norms, as

well as engineered inrastructure, rather thanto agriculture.

In mature, developed economies such as the UKand USA, the purchasing policies or resh produceoperated by the major supermarkets activelyencourage waste in the eld. In this regard, ratherthan entering into supply contracts with armers,these large-scale purchasers procure producethrough supply agreements where the benetsare weighted in the avour o the buyer. Penaltiesare imposed or ailure to deliver agreed quantitieso resh ruit and vegetables during the year,which encourages armers to grow much morecrop than they need as a orm o insurance againstpoor weather and other actors that may reducethe yield. Furthermore, entire crops, or portionso crops, can be rejected prior to harvest on thegrounds o physical appearance. As a result othese actors, up to 30% o the UK vegetable cropis never harvested.[56]

In less-developed countries, most agriculturaloperations, including harvesting, are carried outby hand. This means that the armer must havesucient labour available to harvest and carry hiscrop o the eld. Inevitably it is a slow processand requently poor weather conditions or attacksby pests o all types reduce the quality or quantityo crop harvested, or may destroy it altogether.

Frequently, manual harvesting methods involvethe repeated handling o crops as they pass alongpoorly engineered transport inrastructure romeld to armyard, armyard or onsite storage totransport hub, and rom there to the consumer.Picking produce into boxes or baskets is arelatively simple method o producing a unit loadthat can be engineered to suit the carrying vehicle,be it bicycle or cargo plane, and also protects thecrop. In ideal cases, this container can also matchthe processing plant, enabling eld handling,drying, storage and transport to be carried outwithout directly handling the crop at all.

Mechanised harvesting systems, such as thoseengineered in developed countries, have thepotential to increase the rate and eciency othe process in developing nations, but they mustbe supported by logistics and storage systemsthat match the capacity o the harvester. Manyattempts to introduce mechanised harvestinghave oundered in this regard, due to inadequatelocal capacity to transport and store the crop atthe rate it was harvested and lack o skills orequipment maintenance.

fIEld wastagE



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In the majority o cases, ood crops are harvestedonly once per annum and so need to be placed in asecure storage acility in order to provide a regularsupply o ood throughout the year. Additionally,since pricing o most agricultural commodities aregreatly dependent on the local market conditions,a lack o eective storage acilities requentlyorces armers to sell their produce as soon asit is harvested.Unortunately, as everyone elsein the district is also trying to sell their crop atthe same time, this gives buyers and traders ahuge commercial advantage. Local stores enablearmers to regain some control over the market, asthey provide a buer between supply and demand,and regional and national storage inrastructureensure eciency in market unctioning whilemaintaining ood supply security. But in order tooperate such stores, it is essential that they areengineered to suitable standards, and connectedto both the energy and transport inrastructure.

In general terms, the vast majority o oodstuscan be regarded as perishables. Although whenmanaged under ideal conditions cereals, includingwheat and maize can be stored or as long as veyears, i the conditions are not satisactory, theycan deteriorate rapidly. Others, including rootvegetables, can be stored or several months,again under good conditions, but losses can behigh i conditions are not ideal. Sot ruit, leavegetables, meat and dairy products are trueperishables and can be stored only under closelycontrolled conditions. Researchers around theworld have determined the best conditions orstoring the majority o ood crops and typicallythese are dened by temperature, humidity andoxygen level.

Grains and oilseeds are relatively less perishablethan other crops,but still require care and skillin storage as they are not inert material, butliving seeds. The water content o the seeds must

be reduced to a level that is sae or storage assoon as possible ater harvest.Alternatively, thetemperature o the stored crop must be reduced.Oten both o these can be achieved by goodengineering o ventilation systems.

Grain is oten dried using air streams that areheated by urnaces using gas or oil. These mustbe careully engineered and managed to conserveenergy and also to avoid damage to the grain. Ricein particular is very susceptible to cracking i thespeed o drying is too high.Accurate temperaturecontrol is particularly important when dryingmalting barley, seed crops and oil seeds.Mostmodern grain drying machines utilise electronictemperature control systems, and many use heatrecovery systems to take the best advantage othe energy used to drive o excess moisture.

Buildings and structures used or long-termstorage must be hygienic and engineered toprevent the entry o birds or vermin, whileproviding adequate ventilation. Oilseeds needparticular attention, as they are susceptibleto heating i they are allowed to become wet.The development o oilseed varieties with everhigher oil contents has introduced a need ormore-eective control o storage conditions,as vegetable oil reacts adversely to moisture.Moderate quantities o moisture degrade the oil,producing high levels o ree atty acids,whileexcessive levels can lead to sel-heating andeven re.

Grain wastage in store varies widely with thetype o crop and the region. In a developedcountry such as Australia, wastage o 0.75% instored grain is at the upper end o acceptability,

whereas Ghana, one o the more developed othe emerging West Arican economies, recentlyexperienced a 50% loss rate o stored maize roma total 2008 production o one million tonnes[58]Considerably greater levels o tonnage loss existin other larger developing nations, such as Indiaor example, where about 21 million tonnes owheat annually perishes due to inadequatestorage and distribution,[57] equivalent to the entireproduction o Australia. In neighbouring Pakistan,

losses amount to about 16% o production, or3.2million tonnes annually, where inadequatestorage inrastructure leads to widespread rodentinestation problems.[59]

wastE at storagE



22/35

In the ormer Soviet Republics o Eastern Europewastage rates remain high, with Ukraine typicalo the region at 2550% losses.[60] Given typicalgrain production levels o about 24 million tonnesin Ukraine,[61] this amounts to losses o some 612million tonnes annually or that country alone. Themajority o grain, and vegetable, stores in EasternEurope date back to the 1930s in both design andengineering, making them inadequate or todaysneeds. Substantial numbers are based on lowsheds that lack simple engineered inrastructure,such as adequate rainwater drainage, which leadsto grain spoilage rom moisture. The larger storesare built rom concrete slabs with inadequatejoints, the result o which is that both weather andinsects nd routes or penetration.

Storage acilities or ruit and vegetables requirea much higher standard o engineering andmanagement than grain crops.For example, in thecase o ruit, systems that incorporate controlledatmosphere conditions as well as temperatureand humidity management are required, as manytypes respond to gaseous ethylene, carbon dioxideand oxygen, and so the presence or absence oquantities o these gases can have a great eecton their storage lie[62] (unortunately, every typeo ruit has its own particular requirement obest storage temperature and atmosphere, soit is oten not possible to store several types oruit in a single store). Harvesting operationsin many instances involve ruit and vegetablesbeing transported directly o the eld into packhouses, where they are graded beore packingor storage or shipped directly to market. Otenreshly harvested crops are hot rom the sun andso must be cooled beore they can be stored.Removing eld heat as quickly as possible is oneengineering solution that allows the storage lieo even the most ragile o ruit crops to beextended.[63] For example, chilling strawberries inthe eld can extend their shel lie to as long as

eight days, compared with one or two days withambient storage.However, many less-developednations are located in the warmer, hotter regionso the world, such as India and Arica where postharvest losses o ruit and vegetables can rangebetween 3550% annually,[2,52] and these countrieslack the engineered inrastructure required toacilitate such post-harvest cooling.

Ideally, stores need to be equipped with conditionsensing and monitoring systems working inconjunction with ventilation or rerigeration plantin order to produce a suitable storage regime.O course, in addition to requiring trained andcompetent engineers and operations sta, suchadvanced stores are wholly dependent on theengineering o a reliable electrical supply thathas the capacity to power such equipment.Very ew developing countries have a reliablerural electrical supply and lack o this resourceis a major actor in the quantity o crops spoiledin storage. Even in the UK, the USA and Canada,many arms in remote areas lack an electricitysupply that has the capacity to power modernequipment, and the high capital cost andcomplexity o such acilities generally means thatthey are provided at large scale on a commercialbasis and managed by specialist companies. Inthe latter case, ideally stores are located in closeproximity to ood producing areas and linked todistribution warehouses near to consumer centresthrough good transport inrastructure.



23/35

Ecient and eective transportation o oodstusrequires engineered acilities to be available onthe arm to load vehicles rapidly with little orno damage. However, in many less-developedareas where manual harvesting is the onlyapproach available, picked produce such as ruitand vegetables is simply loaded into inadequatevehicles by hand, rom piles previously made inthe eld, and oten bruised or damaged in theprocess. During transport to the armyard or onsitestore, urther damage occurs, as transit takesplace on poorly maintained roads and continuousbumping adds urther bruising. At the store theyare unloaded and oten piled in urther heaps,sustaining additional bruising and damage, all owhich results in produce being thrown away dueto severe spoiling, trimmed back to a raction o itsoriginal size or suering a substantial reductionin its shel lie. I picked directly into recyclablecrates, damage and loss in such produce can bereduced substantially and handling eciencyincreased,even when mechanical handlingequipment is not available. This relatively simplesolution can dramatically reduce the level owastage, but it is oten not used.

Innovation in integrated handlingand transport

A leading East Anglian arm provides a good

example o what can be achieved throughplanning and engineering o an integratedhandling and transport system.[64] The armhas invested in a high-capacity system orthe handling, drying and storage o onions.Instead o using plastic crates, its handlingunit is the 20t shipping container. Onionsare loaded directly into specially constructedcontainers holding about 18 tonnes, in the eld.These containers are carried to the dryingunit and then to the pack house. This systemenables two men to handle over 100,000 tonneso onions annually with minimum loss orwaste. However, in order to achieve this highlevel o eciency, the entire operation was

careully planned and engineered around themodular container.

wastE IntransportatIon

However, introducing handling crates orvegetables or ruit in isolation is not sucientby itsel and should ideally be part o a plannedand integrated system.The size, design andengineering o the crate need to be selected tosuit the ruit or vegetable being transported, theequipment that is used to handle it and also thetransport vehicle. In the USA, it is common orspecially adapted orklits to handle 12 palletsas a unit load,while in other regions o theworld, the unit load carrier is a bicycle. Forklitor pallet trucks require a level, smooth foor oroperation and requently need a loading bay inorder to access a vehicle; in many cases suchengineered inrastructure is not available andunlikely to be provided in the near uture. It isthereore important that the entire route rom eldto market is planned as an integrated system,taking into account the local conditions andengineering capability.



24/35

IMprovEd harvEstIngsystEMs In dEvElopIngnatIons MustbE supportEd byEffIcIEnt storagE anddIstrIbutIon systEMs.



25/35

The logistics systems and marketing practiceso modern supermarkets in mature developedcountries, ensure that perishable produce spendsthe minimum amount o time on display, reducingin-store wastage. But in less-developed economies,where open stalls are the primary marketplace oroodstus, wastage rates are considerably higher.Stallholders use a variety o methods to preservetheir goods through the day, rom sprayingvegetables and salads with water to using iceshavings to preserve sh. However, these methodsare not particularly eective, they are requentlyinsanitary and risk contaminating the ood.

In the least-developed societies, patterns odomestic wastage vary dramatically between ruraland urban households. Rural amilies are obligedto store staple crops rom their annual harvestright through the year, so it is vitally importantthat losses are kept to a minimum. But storageacilities are oten primitive, oten remainingunchanged or generations, and attacks byrodents, insects and moulds are common. In urbanareas, wastage is reduced to an absolute minimumby the simple process o purchasing only enoughood or the day, or even the meal. Small shopsand market stalls purchase oods rom a armer orprocessor and dispense tiny quantities rom bulkbags or cans. It is not unusual or amilies to buyood twice or even three times daily.

Incongruously, it is in the most advanced andafuent societies where the largest quantitieso ood are wasted at the consumer end o thechain.[52,65] Although mature, developed societieshave substantially more ecient, eective andwell-engineered market logistics, 30% o what isharvested rom the eld never actually reaches themarketplace (primarily the supermarket) due totrimming, quality selection and ailure to conormto purely cosmetic criteria.[66] This can include suchreasons as the packaging is slightly dented, one

piece o ruit is bad in an otherwise perectly goodbag o ruit, or it is thrown out in the warehousebecause it had ripened too soon. In this way theglobal ood industry produces large amounts oood waste, with retailers generating 1.6 milliontonnes o ood waste per year.[66]

O the quantity that does reach the supermarketshelves, 3050% is thrown away by the nalpurchaser in the home,[52,66] oten at the directiono conservative use by labelling. Labelling omany oods can actually encourage waste. Manyconsumers have a poor understanding o bestbeore and use by dates, and these dates aregenerally quite conservative, as they are drivenby the retailers desire to avoid legal action.Promotional oers and high-pressure advertisingcampaigns, including bulk discounts and buyone get one ree oers, encourage shoppers tobuy large quantities in excess o their actualneeds[52], which leads to substantial ood wastagein the home. In the UK, or example, aboutseven million tonnes (worth about 10.2 bill ion) oood is thrown away rom homes every year.[52,66]Itis estimated that this costs the average household480 a year[67] which accumulates to 15,00024,000 over a lietime. 1 billion-worth o the oodwasted annually in the UK is ood still in dateand so is perectly edible.[68] I this quantity o oodwas not wasted, the saving in energy consumed inits production, packaging and transport, would bethe equivalent o taking 20% o cars o the road inthe UK.[68]

However, despite current complaints o risingprices, ood in the UK represents quite a smallpart o the average amilys spending. A recentreport shows that the average amily in the UKspends 11% o its budget on ood,[69] which helpsto explain why it is not valued more highly. Theexcessive waste is a complex issue, but partiallydue to a long-term national policy o cheap ood[67]

which results in it being grossly undervalued..

For example, as a general policy, the cateringindustry oten throws away a third o its ood,[70]as restaurants deliberately order too much in orderto avoid running out. Because the ood is generallyregarded as the least costly resource in a cateringoperation, it is viewed as disposable.

wastE at thE MarkEtplacEand In thE hoME



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In thE uk, sEvEnMIllIon tonnEs offood valuEd atabout 10 bIllIon Is

thrown away froMhoMEs EvEry yEar.



27/35

Rising world population, combined withimproved nutrition standards and shiting dietarypreerences, will in the coming decades continueto exert pressure or increases in the global oodsupply. Engineers, scientists and agriculturalisthave knowledge, tools and systems that willassist in achieving increases, but their scale andsuccess is dependent on the availability andaordability o a number o resources, many owhich are diminishing. Currently, vast quantitieso oodstus, estimated at 3050% o total globalproduction, are lost or wasted between the eldand consumer. The primary cause o this wastageis inadequate engineering and agriculturalpractice knowledge, deciencies in managementskills, poorly engineered inrastructure in theorm o electricity and potable water systems, andstorage and transport acilities which are otennot t or purpose. Further wastage results romthe commercial practices o modern supermarketsthat demand cosmetically perect oodstusand encourage the more-afuent consumers topurchase excessive quantities.

Regardless o a nations stage in economicdevelopment, or where in the ood chain theood is wasted, its loss is not a loss merely othe nutritious material itsel but also o the land,water and energy resources that were expendedin its production, processing and distributionto the point o loss. This makes the level o lossencountered in developed countries even moreunsustainable, since much o the ood that iscasually thrown away by consumers has beentransported right around the globe to reachthat household.

In order to reduce the current levels o oodstuswastage, improvements must be made at allstages in the chain o production, distributionand storage, rom the producer/armer right intothe consumers home. The changes that are

needed vary on a case-by-case basis, with thedevelopment stage o the individual nation underconsideration, however there are a number o keyissues that can be identied that have implicationsor action by governments, the engineeringproession and wider general public.

what nEEdsto changE?

In nations o the world that are considereddeveloped in economic terms, such as those oEurope and North America, existing inrastructureoten needs to be updated and its connections totransport improved as engineering and technologyadvances. One quite recent development orexample, is the increasing quantity o grains thatare transported by shipping container, makingbetter use o available road, rail and marinetransportation systems. Alongside such changes,education, training and management systemsneed to be installed and applied in order to takebest advantage o the new acilities and methodsand, wherever possible, opportunities takento work towards reductions in current levelso waste.

The prime area to address in this group ocountries, however, is the act that under currentmarket conditions, many staple oodstus areregarded as low-cost commodities and, as such,rarely receive the ocus on waste that theydeserve. A case in point is that until the supplyand demand or cereals converged rom 2008 to2010, the world prices o cereals had remainedrelatively static or many years,[71] and wheninfation is taken into account, had decreased.As a result, there was little interest or nancialbenet in reducing the levels o waste. Undercurrent and projected market conditions though,it is likely that waste control programmes will bemuch more benecial in economic and politicalterms, and so practitioners should be encouragedto pursue these with greater vigour.

As the value o ood crops increases over time,it might be expected that the current practice odiscarding large quantities o edible and nutritiousruit and vegetables on purely cosmetic groundswill become less economically viable. However,governments should not wait or ood pricingto trigger action on this wasteul practice, but

instead proactively pursue ood policy initiativesthat change consumer preerences, dissuaderetailers rom operating in this way, and leadto increases in the quantity o these deectiveitems in the retail markets. In this regard itwill be necessary to shit a deeply embeddedmarketing and consumer culture and makechanges to thinking on the management and careo oodstus, which will need to be implementedthroughout the wholesale and retail distributionchains, as well as in individual households.Ultimately, as prices o oodstus increase, theseimprovements are likely to become increasinglysel-driven and build incrementally on thegovernment-catalysed action.



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Turning to those nations o the world that arecurrently experiencing rapid development,these are heavily engaged in programmes oinrastructure improvement that, while they areaimed primarily at acilitating market access,have the added potential o reducing waste.For example, Brazil has engineered long-distanceroads, enabling inland arms to transport graincrops to the ports.[72] Improved transport and portacilities in Chile have dramatically increased thatcountrys access to export markets or its ruitand wine[73], and there are several programmesunder way in the ormer Soviet states to improvethe quality o storage acilities or many dierentcrops.[74] In China, dramatic improvements inengineered inrastructure have made it possible orthat country to access world markets in a numbero commodities, including as two examples, applesand garlic.[75] All these improvements to physicalinrastructure need to be supported by education,training and management systems, in order toimprove engineering practice knowledge, avoid themistakes made already by the developed nations,and ensure that they are operated and maintainedto the highest levels o eectiveness.

In the less-developed countries, particularlythose o sub-Saharan Arica and South East Asia,crop harvesting, handling, storage and transportinrastructure needs the most attention, andacilities must be engineered that are appropriateor the level o technology that is available locally.The latter is essential in order to ensure resilienceand sustainability are established in the earlystages o development, particularly in a world oincreasing environmental risks, such as climatechange. Engineered inrastructure includesthe provision o roads, and reliable supplies oelectricity and potable water, but also more easilyprovided basic components such as grain storagebags that are less accessible to insects, andappropriately sized bulk storage acilities such

as silos and tanks. Advances in the engineeringo solar and wind energy may acilitate theinstallation o rerigeration or storage in more-remote areas, though the aordability o smaller-scale cooling systems or the storage o primaryagricultural products is always likely to presentchallenges.Above all, systems and componentsshould be such that their capital and operatingcosts are appropriate to the value o the materialbeing handled and stored.

More undamentally, in newly emerging anddeveloping countries, knowledge transer isneeded to inorm producers o the characteristicso their crops and to disseminate advice onhow best to store oodstus. Governmentsneed to recognise the scale and urgency o thesituation, and establish training and educationalprogrammes to improve the level o best practiceunderstanding, particularly in the post-harvestsector. Inevitably, in the case o very perishablecrops, this advice is likely to be how to gain bestand most-rapid access to the market. The transero management expertise is also required toapply this technical education, with the aim obringing as much o the armers crop to marketin a saleable condition as possible. Politiciansand regulators have an important role to playin this regard, as they should be capable obalancing the need or sanitary/phytosanitarycontrols with removing obstacles to ree trade thatcurrently cause the loss o signicant quantitieso ragile horticultural crops at certain contestedborder crossings.

There is also a large role or the nancinginstitutions, as the unding schemes needed toenable these improved systems to be developedare likely to require signicant investment to beput in place and considerable nancial innovation.As an example o the scale o investment required,a easibility study is about to be launched inEthiopia to develop a national network o grainstorage acilities, and the anticipated cost o thisnetwork is expected to be at least $1 billion.[76]This scale o investment will be requiredor multiple commodities and in numerouscountries, and co-ordinated eorts are goingto be essential. However, currently there is amarked lack o co-operation between the variousdevelopment agencies, as evident or example inthe case o the EU, the UN and World Bank/IFC,which are all working independently on grain

warehouse systems in Uganda,

with no apparentintercommunication. This needs to change.



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The changes described above cover a broadrange o improvements needed across avariety o development stages, and require thedeployment o an equally wide range o skills.Researchers, engineers and technicians rommultiple disciplines will be called upon to devise,install and maintain acilities and equipment thatimprove current methods o ood production andproduct handling, rom initial planting throughto human consumption. These will involve theexpansion and improvement o inrastructureranging rom eld machines, roads and railwaysto electricity generation and distribution systems,potable water supplies, heating, ventilation,waste disposal systems and storage buildings.Electronics, systems and IT engineers will beneeded to develop improved and lower-costenvironmental controls, while mechanical and civilengineers will be required to improve the builtenvironment including structures, transportationand mechanical handling systems. In this regardthe scale o the challenges and the need tothink in a more systems-orientated approach,to build in resilience and embed sustainability,will require increased levels o interdisciplinary,multidisciplinary and collaborative working acrossthe various disciplines and institutions o theengineering proession.

In years past, each individual amily unitmaintained its own stock o oodstus, reshand preserved, but in developed countries thisresponsibility has transerred to the industrialisedood chain. This trend is now being ollowed bydeveloping and newly developing nations alike,as they implement approaches and practiceslargely adopted by the nations that industrialisedbeore them. The outcome is that an increasingproportion o the worlds population is removedrom involvement in and knowledge o the oodsupply system, merely becoming ood consumersat the end o a supply chain. This creates a culture

with little understanding o the source and valueo ood. I waste is to be reduced to the point oelimination, in order to help ensure the growingnumbers o people can be ed with minimumresources and environmental risk, this lack oassociation needs to be rectied. Indeed, there islittle benet in increasing production alone when,under current practices and behavioural norms,a third to a hal o the ood produced is simplythrown away. It is time to redress the balance,recognise the value o ood, and work towardshelping eed uture generations through vigorouseorts to reduce waste.

to dEvElop anatIonal nEtworkof graIn storagEfacIlItIEs In EthIopIa

alonE wIll cost atlEast $1 bIllIon.



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rEcoMMEndatIons

In order to help prevent a uture globalood crisis, the Institutiton o MechanicalEngineers recommends:

1. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO) works with the international engineeringcommunity to ensure governments o developednations put in place programmes that transerengineering knowledge, design know-how,and suitable technology to newly developingcountries. This will help improve producehandling in the harvest, and immediate post-harvest stages o ood production.

2. Governments o rapidly developing countriesincorporate waste minimisation thinkinginto the transport inrastructure and storageacilities currently being planned, engineeredand built.

3. Governments in developed nations deviseand implement policy that changes consumerexpectations. These should discourageretailers rom wasteul practices that lead tothe rejection o ood on the basis o cosmeticcharacteristics, and losses in the home due toexcessive purchasing by consumers.



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contrIbutors

The Institution o Mechanical Engineers wouldlike to thank the ollowing people or theirassistance in developing this report:

George Aggidis FIMechE

Pro Ian Arbon FIMechE

Colin Brown FIMechE

Charles Clarke AMIMechE

John Earp FIMechE

Tim Fox FIMechE

David Greenway FIMechE Alistair Smith FIMechE

Bob Stannard MIMechE

David Warriner MIMechE

Simon Whatley FIMechE

David Williams FIMechE

Image credits:Covers: courtesy o Class U.K. Ltd; Page 04: Medioimages/Photodisc; Page 08 iStockphotoLP; Page 16: Alta Qadri/AP/Press Association

Images; Page 22 Chris Sattlberger; Page 24 iStockphoto LP.



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