Businessperson 1: Mmmm! That burger looks delicious! I might order some takeout too. I’m exhausted.
Businessperson 2: Yeah, it’s really tasty and massive. And the fries are THE best.
Businessperson 1: What are you watching there?
Businessperson 2: This amazing documentary on food waste. Have you seen it?
Businessperson 1: No, is it any good?
Businessperson 2: Scary! I’m blown away by the statistics. Did you know that, out of all the food that is produced to eat, the world throws away about one-third of it? Every single year.
Businessperson 1: Seriously?
Businessperson 2: Yeah! We could feed three billion people with that food. And it’s worth one trillion US dollars.
Businessperson 1: I can’t even wrap my head around how much food that is.
Businessperson 2: Maybe this will help. You’ve been to China, right?
Businessperson 1: Yes. I did that trip from Shanghai to Beijing with my friends. Amazing.
Businessperson 2: So imagine that all of China was just fields that grow crops.
Businessperson 1: That’s a lot of crops.
Businessperson 2: It is. It’s 2.5 billion acres. Now imagine we just throw away all the food that we make with them.
Businessperson 1: That’s crazy!
Businessperson 2: But it’s not just that. It’s the whole food process. The water that is used to grow the wasted food is the equivalent of 200 liters, per person, per day for 9 billion people.
Businessperson 1: 9 billion? But there are only about 7 billion people on the Earth now, aren’t there?
Businessperson 2: Exactly! There won’t be 9 billion people on the planet until the middle of this century, and by then, we will need to be producing 70% more food than we do now to feed everyone.
Businessperson 1: It doesn’t make sense at all. Especially when you consider all of the people who are hungry in the world. I read that about 700 million people don’t have enough food right now.
Businessperson 2: I know! A lot of it, would you believe, is apparently to do with how it looks.