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GII Challenge

2023-24 Challenge: Global challenges in Food Waste Reduction

Roughly 1.3 billion tons of the world’s food is wasted every year. Saving just a quarter of food lost or wasted globally each year would feed 870 million people. What can be done to achieve the UNSDG target of cutting global food waste in half and reducing food loss?


In the last few decades food waste has emerged as a pressing global challenge which has numerous  far-reaching consequences impacting food security, economic well-being, and environmental sustainability. Each year, an estimated one-third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted, amounting to approximately 1.3 billion tons. This poses a critical threat to our planet by exacerbating hunger, depleting natural resources, and contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.

The urgency to address food waste is an ethical imperative and is also a vital step towards achieving a more sustainable and equitable food system. The issue of food waste impacts all of us in small ways every day and the choices we make during our weekly grocery runs have many far-reaching consequences which many choose not to acknowledge.


This year’s GII Challenge entails exploring those consequences and finding ways in which we can address the implications of our food choices in order to curtail the issue of food loss and wastage.

agriculture

Our challenge expert: Michael Classens

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Michael Classens is an Assistant Professor, School of the Environment and Undergraduate Associate Director. Michael has a PhD (2015) in Environmental Studies from York University, where his thesis focussed on socio-ecological transformation via local food production, themes on which he elaborates in his book From Dismal Swamp to Smiling Farms.

He has regularly published journal papers and book chapters on sustainability, racial justice, and critical food systems pedagogy. In his courses, he specialises in community-based learning, informal learning outside the classroom, and integrating multiple sources of knowledge, including Indigenous and community-based knowledge.

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