Bright young minds to eliminate food waste and losses
In the time it takes you to read this blog, approximately 19’000 kg of edible food will be wasted or lost in Switzerland 1. That is equivalent to 19 one tonne trucks lined up next to one another.
In Switzerland half of this food ends up in the garbage bin of households – and along with it all the resources consumed, greenhouse gasses emitted and money spent in order to produce, transport, store and distribute it. This is a common story in much of the western world. In developing countries, most of the losses happen at the other end of the food value chain, as post-harvest losses on or near the farm. This is a result of many factors such as poor access to storage, infrastructure and markets. The scale of this challenge makes it clear that reducing food losses and waste is a very important part of creating a sustainable food system.
Bright new ideas to tackle global challenges
On October 15th, eight students from around the world traveled to ETH Zurich to present their innovative ideas for how to address these issues, through research projects, public awareness campaigns, new organizations or businesses enterprises. The students were finalists from a global ideas competition called “external pageOur Common Food,” launched by the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture, the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation and the Swiss National FAO Committee. Applications came from students in developing countries (to address the challenges of post-harvest losses), and Switzerland (to address the challenges of food waste). The finalists were invited to Switzerland to attend a “bootcamp” where they had the opportunity to learn important skills such as project management, pitching concepts and communicating across cultural and disciplinary boundaries. Each finalist then had a chance to convince the competition’s jury about the potential of their idea to contribute to reducing food waste and losses.
Jump-starting the next generation of food system leaders
The awards ceremony of the ideas competition took place at a public event hosted by the World Food System Center on October 15th to mark World Food Day. The event brought together approximately 150 interested students and individuals from the ETH Zurich, partner organizations and the general public to learn about the issues of food losses and waste, potential solutions and the role of research and academia. The Center hosted the event and partnered with the “Our Common Food” initiative because it was an exciting way to empower students – the next generation of food system leaders – to explore how they could use their education and life experiences to find their role in addressing this global challenge.
As “Our Common Food” reminds us, the responsibility for global food security falls on us all, no matter where we live or what we eat. Solutions will require partnerships across different sectors and disciplines and leaders with the knowledge, skills and motivation to address these complex and integrated issues. The ideas competition challenged students to take concrete steps in this direction, and the jury enjoyed the challenging task of selecting the winning ideas from so many innovative applications. We look forward to watching how the winners transform their ideas into reality.
This blog entry is also available in German.