Transcript Document

Food for thought
At present 854 million people – one
person in every eight – are hungry,
and the current crisis caused by
rapid increase in food prices many
add another 100 million people to
that count
(‘Need, greed and the global food crisis’ by Jean Blaylock)
The number of chronically hungry
people is growing by 4 million per
year.
(Food and Agriculture Organisation)
Hunger kills an estimated 10 million
people every year
(Church World Service)
“Many of the world’s hungry are not
short of food because of a disaster
or crop failure but because of longterm poverty that means they
cannot afford the food that is
available in their local markets.”
(Church World Service)
One in four children in developing
countries is underweight
(UNICEF)
A child dies of hunger every 5
seconds
(Food and Agriculture Organisation)
In the UK the average household
spends 9% of its budget on food,
down from 16% in 1984.
The average person throws away
194kg of organic waste each year,
which is equivalent to 2,800 banana
skins.
(Wacky Waste Facts)
This costs the average home more than
£420 a year.
6.7 million tonnes of food is discarded in
the UK annually = £8 billion.
The proportion of edible, unused
products is 60% by weight, 70% by value
= £ 4.1 million which could have been
eaten
(WRAP)
Most food waste in Britain is made up of completely
untouched food products. Every day, Britain throws away:
1.6 million bananas
550,000 chickens
5.1 million potatoes
1.3 million yoghurt pots
300,000 packs of crisps
440,000 ready meals
710,00 packs of sweets and chocolates
260,00 packs of cheese
50,000 milkshake bottles
25,000 cooking sauces
220,000 loaves of bread
660,000 eggs
1.2 million sausages
4.4 million apples
WRAP (the UK Government’s
campaign, Waste & Resources Action
Programme) calculated that stopping
the waste could reduce the annual
emission of carbon dioxide by 18
million tonnes – the same effect as
taking one in five cars off the roads.
“The WCC views the primary cause of the
current crisis as inappropriate human
actions which have induced climate
change and skyrocketing food prices.
Human actions that are driven by greed
have created poverty, hunger and climate
change. Humanity must be challenged to
overcome its greed.”
(Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, WCC General Secretary)
“The Lord’s Prayer highlights that having
enough to eat is, and has always been,
central to the Christian idea of a world
shaped by justice and mercy. If God’s will
was done, no one would go hungry.”
(Sushant Agrawal,
Director of India’s Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action)
www.cforl.org.uk