Food saving and loss reduction focus on action

In April 2021, the "Anti-Food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China" was officially implemented; in October 2021, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Food Conservation Action Plan", which clearly pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen the reduction of food waste in all links of the entire food industry chain.

Food loss and waste

Food conservation corresponds to food loss and waste

For many years, China has lacked a national authoritative survey on the loss and waste of the entire food supply chain from field to table

According to this survey, in 2016, the comprehensive loss rate of China's grain varieties in all links after production was as high as 18.

The "Report on Food Waste in China's Urban Catering" jointly released by the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the World Wildlife Fund pointed out that based on the survey in four cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Lhasa from 2013 to 2015, the waste rate of China's catering industry was found.

In addition to terminal consumption, the survey conducted by Nanjing University of Finance and Economics from 2016 to 2017 also showed that among other links, the loss rate of processing links was 5.

The reasons for loss and waste are complex

Food loss and waste involve every link from field to table, and the reasons for loss and waste are more complicated

Since the beginning of this century, China has bid farewell to the shortage of food, especially in recent years, with the increase of income level, the tradition of people's diligence and thrift is gradually weakening

More and less people ring the alarm bell

It is imperative to save food and reduce losses

Since the beginning of this century, under the guidance of policies, scientific and technological support and investment guarantee, China's grain production has achieved "eighteen consecutive harvests", but it is increasingly difficult to further increase grain production

In August 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced the results of the third national territorial survey.

Efforts to promote love and food saving

The Party and the government attach great importance to food saving and loss reduction

Government departments at all levels have taken active actions to promote food conservation and combat waste, and have achieved remarkable results

Promote the development of grain saving technology and implement technological grain saving

The national grain industry is actively exploring the introduction of the Internet and modern information technology into grain production and operation, and many typical cases have been formed

In response to the loss of agricultural products in the supply chain, Pinduoduo has formed a "farmland cloud fight" model through technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and distributed artificial intelligence, which gathers a large number of consumers' needs in a short period of time and quickly transmits them to the production side.

Strengthen publicity and mobilization and mobilize the forces of the whole society
.
Since 1991, the Food Care and Food Conservation Propaganda Week has been carried out nationwide in October every year, taking various forms to educate and guide the people to cherish and save food.
By 2021, 31 propaganda weeks have been carried out
.
In 2016, the Scientific Research Institute of the State Administration of Grain and Material Reserves began to produce a special website "National Grain Love and Grain Saving Network" to publicize the dynamics of the grain industry, popularize grain technology, and promote grain conservation
.

Some non-governmental civil organizations or persons also actively participated in the activities of loving food and saving food
.
In 2013, some people who were enthusiastic about public welfare proposed the "CD Action", and then governments at all levels, enterprises and institutions, and the whole society responded positively, which greatly controlled waste in the catering industry
.

Constraints need to be solved urgently

At present, there are still three problems in the practice of grain saving and loss reduction
.

First, the construction of the entire chain loss reduction system is insufficient
.
Over the years, various links have made a lot of efforts to save food and reduce losses, but the coordination of each link is not enough
.
For example, the coordination of breeding technology and planting and harvesting, the coordination of harvesting and drying, the coordination of drying and transportation and storage, and the coordination of storage and consumption
.

Second, the driving force of food saving and loss reduction is insufficient
.
At present, although the whole society attaches great importance to grain saving and loss reduction, the relevant work is mainly promoted by one organization of grain and material reserve departments at all levels
.
Food saving and loss reduction involves all aspects of the whole society, and it is necessary to rationalize the relationship between relevant institutions in terms of mechanism design
.

Third, there are difficulties in grass-roots implementation
.
Farmers' awareness of loving grain and saving grain is not so strong
.
In the household consumption of farmers, although the waste of high-priced food such as meat is relatively small, the waste of staple foods such as rice and noodles is still relatively high.
According to a survey in 2017, the waste of staple food accounts for 50% of the total food waste of farmers, and the rest is meat.
Egg milk, vegetables and fruits,
etc.
There are still many leftovers in college canteens
.
In the catering industry, when relatives and friends gather for dinner, it is still difficult to order food on demand, with no leftovers and no waste
.

From the perspective of each main link, the biggest problem in the harvesting process is the lack of professional technical services, including accurate weather and disaster forecasting services, timely harvesting timing services, agricultural machinery operators' harvesting techniques, and post-harvest drying and drying services.
The grain storage link of farmers is mainly due to insufficient scientific grain storage facilities and insufficient technical services for grain storage; the processing link is mainly over-processing, and the other is that some small and medium-sized enterprises have outdated processing equipment and low efficiency; the transportation link is mainly due to low logistics efficiency and logistics service level.
It is not high, resulting in long transportation time; the main sales link is that the sales infrastructure needs to be further improved, including storage facilities and sub-packaging equipment
.

Improve the whole chain loss reduction system

Grain saving and loss reduction have strong externalities and are difficult to achieve through market mechanisms, requiring government intervention
.
In grain production and operation, farmers and enterprises are important subjects, and thus are also the backbone of grain saving and loss reduction
.
In addition, among the many measures to save food and reduce losses, scientific and technological food saving will be one of the important means.
Relevant scientific research institutions also need to actively assume responsibilities and contribute to food saving and loss reduction
.

First, from the perspective of the government, it is necessary to improve the whole-chain grain saving and loss reduction system, and comprehensively consider all links from the field to the dining table
.
The whole chain of grain saving and impairment involves many departments such as education, science and technology, civil affairs, housing and urban and rural construction, transportation, agriculture and rural areas, commerce, culture and tourism, market supervision, statistics, the State Administration of Administration, and the Bureau of Grain and Reserves.
The design ensures that the loss of the whole chain is minimized
.
A food saving and loss reduction coordination mechanism or specialized agency needs to be established
.
In the top-level design, the responsibilities of each department were clarified, and the synergy of promoting grain saving and loss reduction was strengthened
.
At the same time, speed up the establishment of a statistical monitoring system and a standard system for food loss and food waste, and conduct regular evaluations and effectiveness summaries of anti-food waste work
.

From a policy perspective, improve the laws and policy systems related to grain saving and loss reduction, restrict the behavior of relevant subjects, and guide all sectors of society to form a climate of grain saving and loss reduction
.
In the short term, mainly local governments should implement the Anti-Food Waste Law and the "Food Conservation Action Plan" in accordance with local practices to ensure the smooth implementation of various tasks
.
In the main grain producing areas, unified picking can be piloted.
During the harvest season, the village committee (or village cooperative economic organization) will set up a "grain harvesting team" to organize part of the labor for unified picking, and the government will give certain subsidies to make up for the cost of picking
.
In the long run, special attention should be paid to the role of science and technology in grain saving, and the research and development and promotion of grain saving and loss reduction technologies should be actively encouraged to provide a fundamental guarantee for grain saving and loss reduction
.

Second, from the perspective of producers and operators, first of all, it is necessary to increase the awareness of grain saving and loss reduction, actively introduce advanced and applicable precision seeders, implement technologies such as single-grain precision seeding of corn, and implement seed saving
.
Secondly, strengthen education and training, especially for agricultural machinery personnel, improve the operation level of agricultural machinery and reduce the loss rate through training and learning
.
At the same time, actively adopt drying technology and low-temperature storage technology to reduce transportation and storage losses
.
In addition, the government should actively guide social service organizations to provide technical services for grain saving and loss reduction to meet the needs of producers and operators
.

Third, from the perspective of scientific research institutions, research and development must be carried out from the perspective of the whole chain of the supply chain
.
For example, breeding should not only consider yield or quality, but also fully consider the needs of harvesting (especially mechanical harvesting) and processing needs
.
For harvesting machinery, grading, drying and clearing should be considered
.
The processing technology should consider storage and preservation
.

Fourth, from the perspective of consumers, saving food and reducing losses is sometimes a simple task, and it is necessary to raise awareness
.
In fact, saving food and reducing losses means reducing resource consumption, protecting resources and the environment, and thus protecting our future
.

(Written by the research group of the School of Economics and Management of China Agricultural University: Wu Laping)