The world is in the midst of a food crisis. The price of wheat has doubled since January. The prices of other foods, such as bananas, corn and soybeans, are at all-time highs. Malaysia has begun stockpiling chicken. More than 100 countries have hungrier populations in 2021 than they did in 2000.
Yet the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates some 30 percent of all food grown never makes it to the dinner plate, so the resources used to grow it – water, land, minerals – were wasted. William Gibson’s famous line about the future could just as easily be applied to food: it’s here, it’s just not very evenly distributed.
Part of that distribution relies on efficient supply chains and suitable packaging to transport food from where it’s grown to where it’s eaten. In developing economies, most food loss occurs between the farm gate and the market, with poor storage, packaging and unconnected supply chains contributing to food spoilage. In developed economies, food waste happens between the market and the dinner table, with consumers buying too much and not properly storing their supplies.
