This is not just a baffling amount of food wasted each year, it also shows that we could make better use of our precious resources and avoid damaging our environment and our economy. It seems ludicrous that one part of the world is wasting 1.3 billion tons of food each year when there is 815 million people going hungry every day.

I first learnt about this issue back in Vienna in 2014 when I came across Klaus Pichler's art project ‘One Third’; a photo series where rotting food was arranged into still life. The spectacular picture series shows the connection between food wastage on an individual level and the food production globally. Beneath each picture Klaus Pichler lists details on e.g. transporting distance, the carbon footprint, how much water was used to grow or produce the product and how much was paid for the food pictured. This gives a more in depth analysis of the root problem.

• Food that was produced, but not eaten adds 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
• 1.4 hectares of land (28% of agricultural area in the world) is used each year for food that's wasted or lost
• $750 billion is the amount food wastage costs food producers

According to the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment Australia wastes around 7.3 million tonnes of food each year (about 300 kilogram per person) which costs the Australian economy around $20 billion year on year.

The documentary series War on Waste showed that the Australian commercial and industrial sector (food courts, restaurants and cafes) are responsible for about 2.2 million tonnes of food waste each year. Dianne McGrath from RMIT researched that 29% of Australians leave food on their plate when eating out, usually about 15% of the meal.

The study also found:

• 40% of food waste happens in the kitchen
• 2%of food waste is because of spoilage
• 58% is uneaten food left on plates

Re-using our grandparent's practises of food preparation and taking food more seriously could be a good way to start too. Back in the day it was shameful to throw food away because there was not much available and also it cost a lot more than today. Food was a lot more precious and people would only get what they really needed. They also seemed to know a lot more about food i.e. how to make super yummy stuff from scratch with just a few staples in the pantry, how to grow your own food even if there was just a tiny strip of land (a garden was there to produce) and what to do with food scraps and leftovers. 

My roommate in Southern Germany taught me a recipe from her grandma that she used to cook when bread went stale. It's called ‘armer Ritter’ which translates to ‘poor knight’ and is essentially a savoury French toast and it tastes 'oh so good'. Another thing we learnt from our grandparents was how to make breadcrumbs from stale bread and at the end of the week we would cook something called ‘Eintopf’ (‘One Pot’), where you basically throw in all the leftover veggies from the veggie drawer to make a thick yummy soup. Especially nice in winter and can be altered with different spices each week. 

As the UN study shows there are two problems to tackle: 1. Food going to waste during production and 2. Food wasted once it has been sold to either the supermarket, restaurant, cafe or the consumer. Simple changes to how we shop, store, prepare food could mean a big change down the track saving scarce resources and reducing our carbon footprint immediately.

CONSUMER

• Plan your meals ahead, make a shopping list and only buy what you really need
• Buy seasonally and locally grown food ideally directly from the producer through farmer's markets or by buying fruit and veggie boxes i.e. through Open Food Network Australia or Bring Me Home Box (within 20km of Melbourne's or Sydney's CBD) 
• Check out Love Food Hate Waste
• Resist impulse buying and 'buy one get one free offers' which often put the food waste problem on the end consumer
• Learn how to pickle vegetables and/or what to do with food scraps
• Get creative with leftovers; here some inspiration: Love your Leftovers (an App sponsored by the NSW government)
• Get one of these apps:  OLIO connects neighbours with each other, as well as with cafes and restaurants (for Australia and rest of the world), B-certified Too Good to Go for Android and iPhone which connects customers with stores (number one in Europe), YWaste App connecting merchants with consumers (available in Australia, NZ, Colombia, Indonesia, Singapore), Karma (Sweden)

SUPERMARKETS

• start offering food un-packaged, charging by weight
• only sell seasonal and local produce
• sell 'imperfect' produce i.e. the odd bunch from Woolworths, but without all the plastic packaging
• aim to sell out by the end of the day

HOSPITALITY SECTOR

• get Winnow Solutions to analyse and reduce your food waste with AI technology like IKEA, Compass Group, Hilton and Costa Cruises 
• if you are a cafe or restaurant in Melbourne's CBD, check out Degraves Street Recycling facility. They are collecting food waste, coffee grinds and recyclables from laneway cafes and restaurants. By doing this they not only divert food waste from landfill, where it can lead to emissions, but also manage to turn it into waste water. This is then being pumped to the Werribee Water Treatment facility, where elements are extracted to create a bio gas to make energy.  And, by sending the coffee grinds to a dehydrator and heating it to 170 degrees, it is turned into high quality soil conditioner which is used in community gardens and council parks.

Find the complete photo series here and check out this article on the project by National Geographic magazine.