Wasted Potential – Jocelyn Boiteau and Prabhu Pingali

Each year, about 32% of the food produced across the world is lost or wasted. Tackling food loss and waste has been on the global agenda for decades, with policymakers citing it as a contributing factor to issues like food insecurity and environmental degradation. Despite this attention, food loss and waste remain a challenge across the world.A new book from researchers at the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) provides an evidence-based framework for addressing food loss and waste as a means to improve access to healthy diets. In “Wasted Potential: Tackling Food Loss and Waste Across Transforming Food Systems,” TCI alumna Jocelyn Boiteau and Director Prabhu Pingali set forth a policy agenda that builds demand for diverse, nutritious foods in order to incentivize food loss and waste reduction while mitigating tradeoffs between food security, environmental sustainability and socioeconomic welfare. In addition to stimulating demand for safe and nutritious foods, they call for investments in value-adding innovations like processing, packaging and cold chain infrastructure, as well as public infrastructure and financial services that improve market access.“Wasted Potential” was published by Springer as part of its Sustainable Development Goals Series. It is available to download through open access.