Submitted by giteam t3_11ezexg in dataisbeautiful
Comments
Recolino t1_jahg8i7 wrote
In africa, Nigeria leads the pack as the country with the highest people living below the poverty line
The whole african continent seems to have this problem tho.
It's probably due to a lack of refrigeration and food preservatives in general. They have a more organic diet with lots of fruits and veggies, wich go bad rather quickly, and poor handling, poor packaging and lack of storage for their produce before it reaches the market contribute greatly.
Kopfballer t1_jahgb4i wrote
You can read the report here: https://www.unep.org/resources/report/unep-food-waste-index-report-2021
For african countries it is mainly estimates, but even if the estimation is like 20 or 30% off, it would still be way too much wasted food given the fact that many people don't even have enough food to survive.
NeliGalactic t1_jaj8qu5 wrote
Still bakes my noodle we live in a world where that's commonplace
[deleted] t1_jahsu5n wrote
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Celestaria t1_jaijjkx wrote
Looking at the link from OP, that specific data point seems to be based on the results of this study:
There's a PDF provided there by the researcher. Methods are on page 3, but to paraphrase, it's based on a stratified random sampling of 100 households (a total of 334 people) in Sapele.
A relevant quote from the results:
>By percentage composition, food waste has the highest (75%), the composition of food waste consists mainly of food left-over, vegetables, fish and meat waste, fruits, peels (cassava, yam, potato, orange, pawpaw, banana, plantain etc.).
They didn't really go into why so much waste is being generated, only suggested that much of this could be composted or used to generate green energy.
Chris-1235 t1_jajsac4 wrote
Didn't read it, but If they count peels as "food", the numbers are meaningless. "Organic waste" is not the same as "food waste".
urban_thirst t1_jahe2sd wrote
Something has gone wrong with the colours. There's only 3 colours instead of the spectrum the key suggests. 97th rank is the same shade as the 4th rank.
frog_football t1_jahm4eq wrote
I agree the difference between Mexico and Canada should not be that wide while Canada and Slovenia are the same color
Omni_sciens t1_jaixul4 wrote
To shine a light on why there are so much food waste in Malaysia, apparently inedible waste like big fruit peels are considered as food waste in Malaysia. To quote the report:
>In a 2010 household waste composition analysis in Bandar Baru Bangi, Malaysia, food waste was split into three categories: “Unused food”, “General kitchen waste” and “big fruit peels.” The latter category is particularly relevant to Southeast Asia, where large fruits such as durian or jackfruit will lead to substantial inedible waste.
Malaysia is a big producer of fruits with thick and heavy inedible peel/shell, most notably are durian, jackfruit, mangosteen, coconut and so on. Also referring the same analysis:
>What is more notable is that “Unused food” accounted for some 18 per cent of total food waste in those households, a substantial minimum share of food waste that was edible.
The point is, data collection varies from country to country, and visualization like this doesn't effectively represent the truth of the matter.
thrussie t1_jajcw0p wrote
Yeah food waste is not necessarily wasted food
TheChronographer t1_jaktoab wrote
Exactly. I remember a long long time ago seeing these kind of studies locally and then realising they counted things like eggshells and the husks of corn cobs. Those are technically 'food waste' but are definitely not wasted food.
giteam OP t1_jagu07t wrote
In this report, food waste is defined as "both the edible and inedible (bones, rind, pits/stones) substances that are used in the manufacture, preparation, or treatment of food".
One significant limitation mentioned in the report is that not every country has high-quality data on food wastage, especially those in lower-income countries. Some of these numbers could therefore be quite different from actual food waste numbers. However, the main aim of the report was to shed light on food waste as a whole, to hopefully provide a framework for countries with lower-quality data to adopt in order to track food waste more accurately in the future.
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Source (data can be found in Database, while full written report can be found in Full Report)
Tools: Figma, Tableau
avoere t1_jah1bu6 wrote
Then the report sucks and only wants to push an agenda. It does not make sense to include inedible parts as waste
alie1020 t1_jai35s0 wrote
The "manufactur, preparation and treatment of food" really sticks out to me. For example, if an American buys a fruit cup that was packaged in Bangladesh, then the skins, seeds, rotten fruit that couldn't be packaged, etc. all gets counted as food waste in Bangladesh, right? It seems like the data would be skewed against the less developed countries which increasingly produce processed foods for first world countries.
Jester_Thomas_ t1_jagtsys wrote
Did you make this graphic? I'd be interested to see some of the assumptions you've made to get at those statements. Does your claim that the 'developing / developed nations' waste the same account for the fact that much of the food wasted in the global South occurs due to a lack of infrastructure rather than poor purchase planning (I would argue that is food lost rather than wasted).
giteam OP t1_jagus1e wrote
Just posted a comment regarding the data, which comes from the UNEP Food Waste Index Report, we simply visualised it in a map.
With regards to infrastructure, the report does mention that the authors encountered a lot more hostility and resistance when attempting to conduct waste audits of food service and retail companies. Considering that food waste is a commercially sensitive topic (and these companies looooove money) it makes sense that they don't want to give accurate numbers. Your suggestion is plausible but we probably won't know for sure unless these food service companies give us accurate numbers.
Plus, the report also suggests that there is such a wide scope for the definition of "food service establishments" - imagine the difference in wastage between sports stadia (beers being thrown after a goal is scored) and a hot dog stand down the road!
WordsWithWings t1_jah6suv wrote
Not so sure about these data. Norwegian households waste 216100 metric tonnes of edible food each year. This translates to a couple of french fries per person per day.
(In Norwegian)
FriendoftheDork t1_jahkb9i wrote
According to Miljødirektoratet Norwegians produced 74-79 KG food waste per person per year (2016). Which would about the same or lower than UK has in the above map.
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https://www.miljodirektoratet.no/globalassets/publikasjoner/M1016/M1016.pdf
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Your source seem to have similar numbers, and both are below the global average. The tricky part is what is beeing measured, and what estimates were used as well as reporting.
WordsWithWings t1_jahm3zv wrote
Interresting. Don't know if the gap from 2016 to 2021 between these sources matter that much - but where in the MD report did you find your numbers? The graph on page 5 seems to indicate annual food waste per person to be 41-46 kg?
FriendoftheDork t1_jahncwf wrote
Yeah that's only in the food industry as I could understand, so would not include food waste in your home which is by itself 40kg in 2020 (p. 94).
Note that unlike the map above, the purpose of this report is not to compare food wastage between countries but to examine specific aspects of it in Norway and how it can be reduced.
Justme100001 t1_jah08ys wrote
This is almost ridiculous. Western countries waste less than Africa ? How do you even get accurate data from countries like Mali, Tchad or Nigeria ? Have you ever seen how much they throw out in supermarkets and restaurants in Europe ?
GiddyChild t1_jalz02k wrote
You underestimate how much of big deal stuff like refrigeration, preservatives, pest control, etc is.
Kopfballer t1_jahh0m1 wrote
The numbers are from the UN, they should be correct.
Tbh I though it would be developed countries wasting the most, with the US on top, since our supermarkets and fridges always have to be full.
Poor african countries wasting so much is a bit shocking. Also China is pretty high in the ranking given their 1.4 billion inhabitants, in absolute numbers per country they probably waste as much as both americas+europe+oceania together.
Bennito_bh t1_jaj56j5 wrote
Difference is, the US has fridges and freezers. They do a lot to preserve food until consumption
kompootor t1_jaieb2x wrote
The pull-box in the lower-left has a quote not from the source:
>There appears to be no significant difference in food wastage between developing and developed countries, suggesting that most countries can implement similar actions against food waste.
Nothing like this is said in the UNEP report, and as u/Recolino points out, waste in developing countries is going to be due more to a large areas that lack refrigeration, industrial preservatives, and hardy strains of crops. Obviously that is a completely different problem, and a far more urgent one, than in the developed world.
This illustrates why in the best visualizations you should clearly indicate if there are some parts that are taken or summarized directly and precisely from your source, and another part is your own summary or synthesis or additional calculations. In this case the textbox is obviously your own words, but the first three are just basic numbers that could easily be checked (though be careful as some of the numbers do not have generally clear definitions, such as continent averages, if they are not explicitly enumerated in the source). A direct quote on solutions from the source is also verifiable. A statement in your own words, however, could possibly summarize the source text, but requires a much closer reading to verify than Ctrl+F, and could also be taken from a specific cited paper within if that source was not made explicit. All of this verifiability (and your own words are verifiably yours, as long as you explicitly denote it as such) goes to making a visualization usable outside of internet memes.
estebanrevenga t1_jahsk36 wrote
has anyone seen the giant carts filled with the prepped food that didn't sell at the supermarkets?! i get disgusted everytime...
Pszemis t1_jaj6gw7 wrote
For people that want to contribute to lowering those numbers I can recommend the "Too good to go" app.
It allows shops to get rid of food that would usually go to waste at the end of the day and be thrown out otherwise. Especially bakeries are a good example here. It doesn't always work great, some sellers try to cheat the system into something that it is not, but most are thankfully genuine.
Draugtaur t1_jagtuuz wrote
damn no wonder they're starving
Ptit_Swicks t1_jagvlb1 wrote
why are big macs a unit of measure
gojt t1_jah9ifd wrote
Americans just love weird measurements
astorman59 t1_jah1739 wrote
hmmm definitely interesting
can we get more details on the mtrics for the collection and processing of this data?
like what is considered food wastage?
[deleted] t1_jah3nmy wrote
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[deleted] t1_jah73qu wrote
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techHyakimaru t1_jah8u76 wrote
Wait! Nigeria is wasting food?
Maguncia t1_jahae0d wrote
I'd say this data was generated randomly, but it would probably be more plausible in that case.
Kesshh t1_jahkmds wrote
Not surprised at U.S. and the likes… but what’s happening in Nigeria?
cagcan7 t1_jahma50 wrote
Wasting is haram in İslam and look at those islam density coutries
Chu1223 t1_jai9m3d wrote
It’s bound to happen regardless
OccamsPlasticSpork t1_jaif70n wrote
I'm disappointed that Israel is the only MENA highlighted on this map. I'm shocked at the absence of Pakistan and India as well.
[deleted] t1_jahp965 wrote
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alliseeis23 t1_jaiep1h wrote
The lack of basic electrification (leading to a widespread lack of refrigeration) is the main cause of such high food waste In subsaharan Africa.
For those saying that its tragic because “they don’t even have enough food to survive” this is a grave misconception. The issue with the vast majority of African nations (expect for extreme cases like Somalia) is not lack of food but lack of food diversity. The issue in modern day Africa is not starvation …. It’s malnutrition.
Many of these nations, Nigeria included, could be the breadbaskets of the world if fertilizer and government support were better distributed (or offered at all).
Fox33__ t1_jaif2wt wrote
"Think of the children in Africa!"
"Mom, they literally waste the most food. Me finishing a bit of mashed potato won't change that..... bitch."
[deleted] t1_jaih7wr wrote
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scram_resa t1_jaix62y wrote
Could the food waste in Malaysia be related to sacrifice?
navywater t1_jak5zo1 wrote
Dont throw away your food there are starving children in africa
Starving children in africa: hold my beer, then pour it out because fuck it
Otherwise_Bunch_7878 t1_jal6461 wrote
It's weird that South Korea is not the first place.
pearyfield t1_jald5m5 wrote
i've lived in both korea and malaysia and i can tell you without a doubt that koreans waste much more food.
Koreans have a side dish culture which literally goes straight to the waste bin if not eaten by customers.
Malaysia have prominent a la carte dishes culture that produces less waste in general
I really doubt the data
One_Drew_Loose t1_jahczxl wrote
This map/graph is pretty….absurd.
OccamsPlasticSpork t1_jaifeyj wrote
I'm happy with this map. I would rather have abundance, choice, and waste than scarcity and no waste.
NeliGalactic t1_jaj8m7m wrote
So basically "we can feed the world, we just choose not to"
Hardiharharrr t1_jajemz1 wrote
This invalidates my argument for my kids to eat their dinner plates empty :-/
tahitithebob t1_jagzey4 wrote
Why is there so much food waste in Nigeria ? How is the waste calculated ?