Food waste reduction could help feed world's starving

One third of all food produced is wasted, the UN estimates

"If food was as expensive as a Ferrari, we would polish it and look after it."

Instead, we waste staggering amounts.

So says Professor Per Pinstrup-Andersen, head of an independent panel of experts advising the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization on how to tackle the problem.

Some 40% of all the food produced in the United States is never eaten. In Europe, we throw away 100 million tonnes of food every year.

And yet there are one billion starving people in the world.

The FAO's best guess is that one third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted before it is eaten.

Food waste

33%

of all food is wasted
$750bn

cost of waste food

• 28% of farmland grows food that will be thrown away
• 6-10% of greenhouse gases come from waste food
• 39% of household food waste is fruit and vegetables

Source: UN/FAO

SPL

The latest report from the expert panel of the UN Committee on World Food Security concludes that food waste happens for many different reasons in different parts of the world and therefore the solutions have to be local.

Take Chris Pawelski, a fourth generation onion farmer from the US. Mr Pawelski has spent months growing onions in the rich, black soil of Orange County, New York, but the supermarkets he sells to will only accept onions of certain size and look.

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From BBC-Busines

China 'admits' trading in tiger skins

China has for the first time admitted in public that it permits trade in skins from captive tigers, according to participants and officials at a meeting of an international convention to protect endangered species.

Tagging is one of many measures that have been introduced to help protect tigers in the wild from the illegal trade in their body parts

They said the Chinese authorities had never before reported this to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).

However, during the convention's standing committee meeting in Geneva, China reportedly said that it still banned tiger bones.

It is estimated that about 1,600 tigers - in captivity and in the wild - have been traded globally since 2000!

"A Chinese delegate said, 'we don't ban trade in tiger skins but we do ban trade in tiger bones,'" a participant in the meeting said.

Cites secretariat sources confirmed that a member of the Chinese delegation had said this.

Chinese officials have not responded to a BBC request for comment.

Between 5,000 and 6,000 tigers are believed to be in captivity in China. Wildlife conservation organisations have long demanded an end to the trade in skins.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE from BBC News

Warming threat to emperor penguins

Climate change is likely to cut Antarctica's 600,000-strong emperor penguin population by at least a fifth by 2100, a study suggests.

There's a "goldilocks" point for ice and emperor penguins, say researchers

The main threat to the penguins comes from changes to sea-ice cover in the Antarctic, which will affect their breeding and feeding.

Dynamics will differ between penguin colonies, but all are expected to be in decline by the end of the century.

Details are published in Nature Climate Change journal.

The US, British and Dutch researchers urge governments to list the birds as endangered. Such a listing could impose restrictions on tourism and fishing.

The team, led by Stephanie Jenouvrier of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said the global population of emperor penguins would probably decline by between 19 and 33% from current levels.

Dr Jenouvrier said the penguins "face possible extinction throughout a significant portion of their range in the foreseeable future".

She added that emperor colonies in Antarctica's Ross Sea may experience population declines later than others because sea ice conditions are still suitable for them.

"Implementing a marine protected area in the Ross Sea could help buy time to avoid extinction and to put in place needed conservation and greenhouse gas mitigation strategies," she said.

To feed their young, emperor penguins leave the colony for months at a time and travel long distances across Antarctic ice to reach open water to find nourishment, such as krill.

They are dependent upon an optimal amount of sea ice cover for a variety of reasons, including refuge from predators while foraging.

Changes to the sea-ice cover can also significantly affect the abundance of krill, the emperor's primary food source and a critical species in the Antarctic food web.

More sea-ice is good for krill, but means that parents might have to waddle further to the sea.

"There is a goldilocks point for ice and emperor penguins," Phil Trathan, an expert at the British Antarctic Survey (Bas), told Reuters.

Mr Trathan said it was unclear if the ungainly birds could adapt by climbing on to land or higher ice. Four emperor penguin colonies had recently been found on ice shelves, above sea level where glaciers spill off the land.

Satellite measurements of Antarctic sea-ice extent show winter coverage to be at record levels. However, climate computer modelling expects this trend to be reversed in the future, as conditions in the Antarctic warm.

Jumbo-gardeners: How elephants affect weather

The tropical forests of Congo help create downpours many miles away. What’s a key element in this forest flourishing? The elephant.

The tropical rainforests of Africa and Asia play a crucial role in keeping our planet healthy. They moderate our climate, absorb the carbon we produce, and act as a major source of atmospheric moisture – which can fall as rain many miles away.One of the biggest tropical forests in the world is in Congo. Its huge size and incredible biodiversity is partly thanks to an unlikely ally – the elephant.

In this film, The Nature Conservancy’s lead scientist Dr M Sanjayan, Dr Valerie Kapos of the UN Environment Programme, and tropical field biologist and conservationist Dr Ian Redmond reveal the crucial role that elephants play in keeping these forests strong and resilient, and how elephants are the most important player when it comes to the diversity of tree species in the rainforest. 

'Immediate protection' needed for Pitcairn's marine bounty

Researchers say that "immediate protection" is required for the waters around the remote Pitcairn Islands in the Pacific, home to one of the world's rarest and most valuable collections of marine species.

Grouper fish on Oeno Atoll followed divers for two hours

The waters have "unique global value that is irreplaceable" says the report, from an international team of scientists.

They've carried out the first underwater surveys of the deep and shallow waters around the islands, best known for their connection to the mutiny on the Royal Navy ship, Bounty, in the 18th century.

Some of the mutineers settled on Pitcairn and around 50 of their descendents still live there, governed as a British overseas territory.

The four islands in the group lie halfway between New Zealand and South America.

They are said to be further from a continent than any other inhabited island.

The extremely remote location has prevented prior scientific exploration of the unsullied waters.

"It is a treasure trove of marine species," Dr Enric Sala told BBC News.

"People know about the mutiny on the Bounty but the true bounty of the Pitcairn's is underwater."

A fish seen near Henderson Island, the largest of the Pitcairn group

A key indicator of the water's good state were the number of top predators like sharks that the scientists recorded. They accounted for over half of the biomass at Ducie Atoll, one of the least disturbed locations.

Perhaps the most significant discovery was down to the purity of the water. The scientists found a type of coralline algae living deeper than anywhere else on earth.

"It lives at 382m that's more than 100m deeper than the previous record, because of the clarity of the water," said Dr Sala.

"It also allows coral reefs to grow to depths that are incredible elsewhere, we found well developed reefs between 75 and 100m below the surface."

The remoteness of the islands has been critical in preserving the waters but the scientists saw some evidence of the encroachment of illegal shark fishing, carried out by foreign fleets.

A voracious, toothy predator, the titan triggerfish, being cleaned by a tiny wrasse

They argue that plans to turn the islands into one of the world's biggest marine reservesshould go ahead as soon as is practicable.

The islanders have voted in favour of this approach and a plan has been submitted to the UK government to create a 836,000 sq km protected zone around the islands.

The plan is still being considered by the UK, but it has been boosted in recent weeks with the announcement that the United States is to declare a huge reserve around the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

The scientists say the time is right for the Pitcairns to follow suit.

"These islands are like a time machine, that allow us to get back hundreds of years to see what we have lost," said Dr Sala.

"But we can also to determine what we want for the future."

Their report is published in the journal, PLOS One.

From BBC News- Sci/ Environment