[The poor of the Third World starve while the First World people throw food into the garbage. — NP]
UN: One-third of food worldwide gets wasted
ROME (AP) — The U.N. food agency says one-third of all food produced in the world gets wasted, amounting to a loss of $750 billion a year.
The Rome-based Food and Agricultural Organization said in a report Wednesday that food in developing countries is wasted mostly due to poor harvesting techniques, while in high-income areas the primary cause of waste is careless consumer behavior.
The report said food waste hurts the environment by causing unnecessary carbon emissions, extra water consumption and the reduction of biodiversity as farming takes over more land. The most serious areas of waste are of cereals in Asia and meat in wealthy regions and Latin America.
FAO stressed the importance of raising awareness among consumers.
NEW POWER 
The question that is always left begging in these reports about food waste is this: Has there ever been a time (a societal model) where there was less overall food waste than at present? We’re guessing that the answer is that there hasn’t been. So, while food waste is frustrating, it may be a phenomenon that has always been part of food acquisition.
Moving forward, then, the question is: Is there a model by which food waste can be reduced? It seems to us the single largest factor mitigating against a positive answer to this is that in our overpopulated world, there are too many people who live too far from food production/harvest sites to allow for truly efficient food distribution.