While events seen at November’s APEC conference in Beijing endeavoured to present China’s refreshed attitude towards worldwide ecological stability, recent research shows that a less-publicised environmental concern is sending warning signals to Chinese society and the rest of the world.
Alarming new statistics highlight a staggering amount of food waste across China. Released by China’s State Administration of Grain last October, these figures have since been discussed at length by Wu Zidan, the director of the organisation, who announced that the Chinese population disregards up to $32.6 billion (£20.9 billion) annually on leftover food and unwanted scraps. In the same statement, it was reported that this equates to approximately 38 million tonnes of wheat, rice and other grains each year.
Food waste problems are not entirely new, nor are they exclusive to China. In fact, it is one commonly shared by the majority of developed and wealthy states across the globe. However, this is not an issue that should be made light of.
China Daily reported that in 2011, one single Wuhan university canteen tossed as much as 28.3% of the food it served. Some experts have calculated that the area of land actually used to cultivate the food discarded by China each year is equivalent to the total arable land of Mexico. Even more terrifying findings have suggested that the entire population of Brazil (approx. 200 million people) could be fed using such quantities.
Why is the neglect of so much food such a dangerous scenario? To follow up, part two of this exploration will investigate where this food is going, how severe the consequences could be, and where China can (and is starting to) wage its war before it’s too late.
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