Producing Enough Food Is Only Half the Battle.

• Author: Mazaud, Francois
• Position: Food preservation and world hunger

How true are the reports which claim that more than 40 per cent of food grown is lost before it is consumed, or if losses were reduced by 5 per cent, millions more people could be fed, or that food losses in some developing countries can amount to tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars? Sadly, many of these stories are true. However, because the factors that cause losses are so varied and take place at many stages of handling, processing and storage, the overall importance of the fully integrated problem is seldom realized. The year-to-year variation in losses is great and, therefore, generalizations are not particularly useful. A world average of 15 to 20 per cent of grain loss is probably close to accurate. If one takes the upper limit, the implication of this loss is that any or all factors which have contributed to the production are wasted. This means 20 per cent of land, 20 per cent of manpower (labour), and 20 per cent of inputs (seeds, fertilizers, etc.) are effectively wasted.

The problem of handling, preserving and storing grains and legumes predates organized agricultural production and has existed since people collected wild seeds. Even prehistoric people realized they had to preserve as much as they could of what they collected until fresh supplies became seasonally available again. The period of plenty does not always last long and, once it is over, it is necessary to subsist on what has been stored until the next harvest. It's a fact that everything--grains, meat, fruit, vegetables, nuts, berries and fodder for animals--seems to become available at about the same time. And food must be preserved form one season to the next and protected from predators, keeping it free of mould and in edible condition. In most societies, people still have to exist to a large extent on what they have grown and stored.

One big change from the distant past is that the chain from producer to consumer is usually made up of specialized components even if it is not fully integrated. Everyone wants to buy at the lowest possible prices and sell at high prices, so people at each stage look for alternatives elsewhere. The producer is usually looking for quantity; intermediate players and consumers normally demand quantity and quality, but each usually wants a different aspect of quality.

Many of the necessary are laborious and take a lot of time and energy, and so the price goes up as the commodity passes through each link of the chain.

The problem...