Making an appeal on World Environment Day, which was celebrated on Wednesday (5th June), the US-based research group WorldWatch Initiative called on policy makers and industry leaders to address food waste.

The group said that, if the issue of waste is tackled appropriately, the benefits would be felt by food producers and consumers, as well as the natural environment. Globally, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that between one third and a half of all food produced is wasted each year. In developing countries, more than 40 percent of food waste happens on farms, during storage and in processing. In industrialised countries, roughly the same amount of waste occurs in retail and the home.

In a bid to curb waste, WorldWatch researchers highlighted findings from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which last year released a study showing that 30 percent of vegetables in the United Kingdom go to waste because of aesthetic standards. These 'irregular' vegetables end up rotting in fields, rather than reaching dinner tables.

However, large retailers and other wasteful companies are coming under increasing pressure to abandon wasteful cosmetic standards. Following a recent investigation into post-harvest losses in the country, researchers advising German Agriculture ministry BMELV recommended government intervention to bring an end to such aesthetic restrictions on food.

The researchers, representing a number of Institutes in Germany, suggested, "More and more consumers are willing not only to accept flawless agricultural products, but to buy [them] because they know that Nature is not standardised. Whether crooked or straight… the shape does not change the taste."

Although agriculture industry lobbyists, most recently Peter Kendall of the NFU, maintain that ramping up agricultural production is necessary to feed the world, WorldWatch contests this view. Critics of the 'productionist' outlook state that it does not take into account problems of inequality and lack of access to healthy food, which are rampant around the world. In the UK, Tristram Stuart, a respected author on food waste, has estimated that reclaiming 25 percent of the food wasted in the U.S. and Europe alone could end global malnutrition.

Speaking ahead of World Environment Day, WorldWatch researcher Danielle Nierenberg said, "The one good thing about food waste is that it’s like low hanging fruit. If we're really interested in protecting the environment while making sure that farmers are making money and improving food security, then preventing food waste is a great way to solve multiple problems."

The research group highlighted work being carried out by number of organisations around the world to crack down on waste, ranging from consumer groups in the United States and Europe, who are putting pressure on supermarkets to end their wasteful practices and appealing to consumers to act responsibly, to activists in the global south who are implementing novel, low-impact technologies to save crops in storage and standing up to wasteful food buyers.