There are several causes of food waste and loss and the effects are even longer. Cosmetic expectations are standards set in everyone’s mind about how something should look, specially food in this case. Cosmetic expectations lead to market rejections, when supermarkets, restaurants, individuals, retailers, processors, etc. reject food simply because it’s not perfect looking. It might be lopsided or have marks or small bites or discolorations or an extra leg or arm. But in most cases, the food is still perfectly fine to eat. Post harvest losses are another form of food loss. All the food that is not handled, stored, or kept properly is lost. Post harvest losses in developing countries results in financial problems
Effects
So now the list of effects of from food waste and loss is a lengthy one, there are resources lost and also different pollutions. Land is one of those resources. 28 percent of world’s agricultural land grows crops that are wasted, that land could have been the forest that was cut down to make space to farmland. All the land taken for farmland destroys natural habitats and all the lush area that was once there. All the water used for the different stages of producing the food adds up to quite a bit. 25 percent of all the water used in the U.S. is used on produce that is wasted. The amount of water could cover all the household water needs around the world! The time and patience of the farmers all those days working away for nothing, they don’t get anything out of all that work if it was wasted earlier on in the process. Also the transportation back and forth, farm to factory, farm to factory. It really pollutes our world. And for what? To be squandered and thrown back into the earth in landfills. Food wastage and loss has economic loss too. The average american family spends 2000 dollars on food that ends up in the trash each year! All the greenhouse gasses emitted the different stages of processing is a huge amount, really feeding global warming. Its seems everything is connected in one way or another in terms of the environment.