The Role of Women in Reducing Food Loss and Waste

Published: 28th Sep, 2019

Women in both developing and developed countries have an important role to play in reducing food loss and waste, since women interact with food at each stage of the value chain from farm to fork.
Close to the farm, women comprise 41 percent of the agricultural workforce worldwide and make up the majority of agricultural workers in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Close to the fork, surveys in a wide range of countries show that women are responsible for 85-90 percent of the time spent on household food preparation. Therefore, targeting women in food loss and food waste reduction campaigns could result in greater reductions than pursuing an unfocused campaign.
One such gender-targeted initiative in Tanzania focused on providing female farmers with greater access to markets and supplied participants with access to solar drying technology that allowed for surplus fruits that might other be lost to be dried and preserved.
Another campaign in Australia called “1 Million Women” encourages women to take action on a number of environmental issues, including reducing food waste. The campaign has hosted events with a celebrity chef to raise awareness of food waste, and its official website provides tips on how to reduce waste and recipes for how to efficiently use food.