“On this World Environment Day, I urge all actors in the global food chain to take responsibility for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable food systems,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day.

Currently at least one third of all food produced fails to make it from farm to table. “This is foremost an affront to the hungry, but it also represents a massive environmental cost in terms of energy, land and water,” the UN chief said, Â noting that in developing countries, pests, inadequate storage facilities and inefficient supply chains are major contributors to food loss. On this World Environment Day, I urge all actors in the global food chain to take responsibility for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable food systems.

Those who grow for export are also often at the mercy of over-stringent expectations of buyers who place a premium on cosmetic perfection. In developed nations, food thrown away by households and the retail and catering industries rots in landfills, releasing significant quantities of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

“Food loss and waste is something we can all address,” Mr. Ban said, noting that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and public and private sector partners have launched the “Think.Eat.Save: Reduce Your Foodprint” campaign to raise global awareness and showcase solutions relevant to developed and developing countries alike.Â

The Secretary-General explained that infrastructure and technology can reduce the amount of food that perishes after it is harvested and before it reaches the market. Governments in developing countries can work to improve essential infrastructure and maximize trade opportunities with neighbours; developed nations can support fair trade and rationalize sell-by dates and other labelling systems; businesses can revise their criteria for rejecting produce; and consumers can minimize waste by buying only what they need and re-using left-over food.

The current global population of 7 billion is expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050. But the number of hungry people need not increase. “By reducing food waste, we can save money and resources, minimize environmental impacts and, most importantly, move towards a world where everyone has enough to eat,” Mr. Ban said.

The scale of the food waste issue is highlighted in a new report, released today to coincide with World Environment Day (WED), which found out that one out of every four calories produced by the global agricultural system is being lost or wasted.

According to the study ‘Reducing Food Loss and Waste,’ which was produced by the World Resources Institute and UNEP and draws from FAO research, the world will need about 60 per cent more food calories in 2050 compared to 2006 if global demand continues on its current trajectory.

“It is an extraordinary fact that in the 21st century, close to 25 per cent of all the calories linked with growing and producing food are lost or wasted between the farm and the fork—food that could feed the hungry, food that has required energy, water and soils in a world of increasing natural resource scarcities and environmental concerns including climate change,” said Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, drawing attention to the absurdity that high volumes of perfectly edible produce are never consumed.

“The menu of case studies and recommendations in this study provide national and community-led solutions that ally smart policies with traditional knowledge, modern science and common sense,” he added, referring to the study’s recommendations.

Through this year’s WED campaign, the UN and its partners are inviting people across the world to join in an effort to raise awareness and take practical actions “whether in your home, whether on your farm, whether in the supermarket, in a canteen, in a hotel or anywhere else where food is prepared and consumed.”

This year’s global host for the Day is Mongolia, one of the fastest growing economies in the world and one that is aiming for a transition to a green economy and a green civilization. “It is not a big waster or loser of food, but the traditional and nomadic life of many of its people does have some ancient answers to the modern-day challenge of food waste,” Mr. Steiner said.

The Mongol General Chinggis Khan and his troops utilized a traditional food called “borts” to gallop across Asia without depending on elaborate supply chains. Borts, he explained, is basically concentrated beef equal to the protein of an entire cow but condensed and ground down to the size of a human fist. “This remarkable method of food preservation, without refrigeration, meant a meal equivalent to several steaks when the protein was shaved into hot water to make soup,” he said.

In advance of WED, UNEP has also been compiling similar examples of traditional and indigenous knowledge from familiar techniques such as pickling or salting fish to the smoking of meat, the drying of fruit and other techniques employed by the Inuits to preserve seabirds which are served later at feasts and weddings.

WED is being observed in many countries today, including in Iraq, where at least 1.9 million people are food deprived and 4 million are vulnerable to food insecurity. Resident Humanitarian Coordinator Jacqueline Badcock stressed that taking care of the environment is crucial to address food insecurity in the country, which increasingly relies on imports to meet its food needs due to poor environmental management.

“It is essential that the Government continues to put in place the policies and good environmental practices that will re-establish Iraqi agriculture and ensure food supply for the most vulnerable,” she said.

The call to action, which comes on the eve of World Water Day, aims to focus on improving hygiene, changing social norms, better managing human waste and waste-water, and, by 2025, completely eliminating the practice of open defecation, which perpetuates the vicious cycle of disease and entrenched poverty.

“I am determined to energize action that will lead to results,” said Eliasson. “I am calling on all actors – government, civil society, business and international organizations – to commit to measurable action and to mobilize the resources to rapidly increase access to basic sanitation.

“Let’s face it – this is a problem that people do not like to talk about. But it goes to the heart of ensuring good health, a clean environment and fundamental human dignity for billions of people – and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. With just over a thousand days for action before the 2015 MDG deadline, we have a unique window of opportunity to deliver a generational change.”

The MDG target to halve the proportion of people without access to sanitation has helped to raise the profile of the issue, and 1.8 billion people gained access to improved sanitation since 1990, but there is still far to go, notes a news release on the new initiative. Meanwhile, the MDG target to halve the proportion of people without access to improved sources of water has already been met.

Of the world’s seven billion people, six billion have mobile phones. However, only 4.5 billion have access to toilets or latrines – meaning that 2.5 billion people, mostly in rural areas, do not have proper sanitation. In addition, 1.1 billion people still defecate in the open.

The countries where open defecation is most widely practiced are the same countries with the highest numbers of under-five child deaths, high levels of under-nutrition and poverty, and large wealth disparities.

“We strongly support this effort to increase the focus on sanitation,” said the Deputy Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Martin Mogwanja, who noted that ending open defecation will contribute to a 36 per cent reduction in diarrhoea, which kills three quarters of a million children under five each year.

“We can reduce the cases of diarrhoea in children under five by a third simply by expanding the access of communities to sanitation and eliminating open defecation,” he told reporters at the launch of the call to action at UN Headquarters. “In fact, diarrhoea is the second largest killer of children under five in the developing world and this is caused largely by poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene.”

Mogwanja said he witnessed personally the impact of open defecation in both development and humanitarian contexts when he worked in Pakistan. A total sanitation project was developed there for the flood-affected areas, together with non-governmental and government partners. In less than two years, over six million people gained access to toilets and are now living in open defecation-free communities.

“But the effort succeeded not by building latrines; it succeeded by getting people to recognize and to talk about the problem,” he stated.

The private sector also played an important part in this transformation, he said, by engaging in sanitation marketing activities, and developing a supply chain which ensured that people had access to the right products in the right place at the right time.

“And it worked,” Mogwanja stated, noting that with the direct support of UNICEF and its partners, over 25 million people in over 44,000 communities now live in open defecation-free environments.

“This can also improve the safety of women and girls, who are often targeted when they are alone outdoors. And providing safe and private toilets may also help girls to stay in school which we know can increase their future earnings and help break the cycle of poverty.”

The call to action will not set up any new structures or funding mechanisms, but focus on generating action at the community level – one community at a time.

In 2005, the Court ruled that Greece was not taking sufficient measures to close down and rehabilitate illegal landfills, of which there were several hundred operating across the country.

Eight years later, in view of insufficient progress since the ruling, the Commission is referring the case back to Court and, in line with established policy, suggesting a daily penalty payment of EUR 71,193 for each day after the second Court ruling until Greece complies with the judgment and a lump sum calculated on the basis of EUR 7,786 per day for the period between the first judgment and the day of compliance or the day of the second Court ruling.

Since the 2005 ruling, progress has been made by Greece through the closure and rehabilitation of many illegal landfills and the establishment of an adequate waste management system. The majority of these projects have been co-funded by the EU.

According to the initial calendar, all illegal landfills should have been closed and rehabilitated by the end of 2008. A letter of formal notice under article 260 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union was sent in April 2009, reminding Greece of its obligations.

However, according to the latest figures available to the Commission, some 78 illegal landfills continue to operate in violation of EU waste legislation and 318 are still in the process of being rehabilitated. The closure of illegal landfills is being delayed by the lack of alternative waste treatment facilities. The situation may become even worse since the Fyli landfill, which receives 90 % of the waste generated in the Athens region, is facing imminent saturation, and will have reached full capacity by the end of 2014. The Commission is therefore referring the case back to Court and requesting financial penalties. The financial penalties will be reduced every time landfills are closed and rehabilitated provided new ones are not created.

“With 900 million hungry people in the world and one trillion dollars at stake, joint action in reducing losses and waste can improve livelihoods, food security, and minimize the environmental impact,” the Director of FAO’s Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division, Gavin Wall, said in a news release.

Established in 2011, SAVE FOOD – the Global Initiative on Food Losses and Waste Reduction aims to reduce the estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food that is lost or wasted every year, with annual losses valued at nearly $1 trillion. The campaign currently has over 50 partners.

One-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption is thrown away or lost, as well as the natural resources used for its production. Food losses and waste amounts to roughly $680 billion in industrialized countries and $310 billion in developing countries.

FAO, together with a trade fair organizer, Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, and a trade fair for packaging and processes, Interpack, is calling for new private sector partners as well as non-profit organizations involved throughout the food supply chain to join the effort and contribute their expertise.

New technologies, better practices, coordination, and investments in infrastructure – from food production to consumption – are critical to reducing food losses and waste, FAO noted, adding that although food losses occur at all stages of the food supply chain, the causes and their impact around the world differ.

In developing countries, food losses hit small farmers the hardest, FAO stated. Almost 65 per cent of those losses happen at the production, post harvest, and processing stages. However, in industrialized countries, food waste often occurs at the retail and consumer levels due to a “throw-away” mindset.

Per capita waste by consumers is between 95-115 kilograms a year in Europe and North America, while consumers in sub-Saharan Africa and South-Southeast Asia throw away 6-11 kilograms a year.