Disease and food loss

Through more research, I have learned that all the food loss and waste is connected to diseases as well.  Clearly, we waste a lot of food across the world in all food categories.  At the same time, hunger coexists with obesity due to a lack of food, as well as a lack of access to good, nutritious food.  The lack of access to high quality calories in fresh fruits and vegetables is of particular concern to me.  The World Health Organization notes that obesity has more than doubled since 1980 and is impacting millions of children across the world. We need to take a systematic approach to food waste, and we need the participation of all key stakeholders in reducing it.  A starting point involved viewing the vast amount of food that we waste across the world each year as a tremendous amount. Capturing and redirecting high quality calories in food that is currently going to waste can help us reduce hunger, improve nutrition, and reduce obesity, and diet related illnesses. It can also allow us to improve the environment, enhance our sense of the community, improve security, and save money.  Also, I learned that it's estimated that the annual medical costs associated with obesity total $147 billion.  Rather than continuing to pour limited funds into treatments, we would probably be better off working on prevention strategies which route healthy food to people versus landfills.