Food prices

What is the issue?

In the last fifty years food has become a cheap and plentiful commodity – in developed countries at least. But are those days coming to an end?

Over recent years, food prices have fluctuated wildly but shown a clear upward trend, with large spikes in 2008 and 2010.

Partly this is down to changing diets in emerging economies, most notably in China, where people eat three times more meat today than they did in 1980. Farmers, particularly in the US, are also growing biofuels at the expense of food crops. To compound matters, the spiralling cost of crude oil means there has been a global increase in the cost of growing, harvesting and transporting crops.

Despite the increasing cost of food, the UK still throws out around eight million tonnes of food and drink a year, around £400 of food per household. Much of this ends up rotting in landfill, producing methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

What should be done?

The solution to the current food crisis would appear simple - to use the food that we do grow more efficiently. But reducing food waste requires a step change in people's attitudes and behaviour.  

The big four supermarkets in the UK account for around three-quarters of the food sold every day and play a key role in shifting behaviour.

We believe retailers should resist running value-led promotions like BOGOFs (Buy One Get One Free) which result in people buying more food than they need and then having to throw it away. Retailers could also be doing more to promote locally produced and healthier, unprocessed foods.

But it would be wrong to place all the blame for food waste on supermarkets. The demand for heavily processed, and heavily packaged, convenience foods has come to the fore as a result of changes in our own society and lifestyles. Today we spend less time preparing meals than we used to and instead demand fast, convenient and readily available food.

We need more life-skills training around food preparation and education in schools around waste prevention. Waste Watch has run successful food waste prevention initiatives across the UK. Government could also do more to champion local food sources, support rural communities and assist domestic self-sufficiency.

In the past, acting on environmental concerns has sometimes been seen as a luxury that can be ditched in times of recession or economic hardship. Reducing the amount of food you waste proves that sustainable behaviour and saving money can go hand in hand.

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