PRESS STATEMENT
World
Environment Day: theme is “Think. Eat. Save and Reduce Your Foodprint ”
DATE: 5 June, 2013
Abibimman Foundation, AYICC –Ghana, Global Call to Action against Poverty .GCAP-Ghana and
IDAY-Ghana, believe we cannot win the battle
against climate change and Environmental unless we step up action and setting a
strong example by Reduce our Foodprint
According
to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion
tonnes of food is wasted or lost. This volume of waste is more than the total
net production of Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in
the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die
daily from hunger. Approximately 98% of the world’s hungry live in
developing nations.
Given
this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on
the environment, this year’s theme – Think.Eat.Save – encourages you to reduce
your foodprint. The idea is for you to become more aware of the environmental
impact of the food choices you make and empower you to make informed
decisions.
While
the planet is struggling to provide us with enough resources to sustain its 7
billion people (growing to 9 billion by 2050), FAO estimates that a third of
global food production is either wasted or lost. Food waste is an enormous
drain on natural resources and a contributor to negative environmental impacts.
In
fact, global food production uses 25% of all habitable land and is responsible
for 70% of fresh water consumption, 80% of deforestation, and 30% of greenhouse
gas emissions. It is the largest single driver of biodiversity loss and
land-use change.
There
are as many as 30,000 edible terrestrial plant species in the world. However,
only 30 crops account for 95 per cent of human food energy needs, with rice,
wheat, maize, millet and sorghum amounting to 60 per cent of these.
About
75 per cent of crop genetic diversity was lost in the last century as farmers
worldwide switched to genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties and
abandoned multiple local varieties.
We
need a major public education effort in schools and community to raise
awareness of the environmental challenges facing. Environmental issues must be
fundamentally repositioned in the policy-making and integrated into mainstream
economic policy gaps.
Governments
have a crucial role play by show leadership and must not only create
environmental agreements, they must enforce them. Cut the subsidies that
sustain environmentally harmful activities every year and devise more
environment-friendly incentives for markets to respond
Kenneth
Nana Amoateng
Chief
Executive Officer
Abibiman
Foundation
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