Jan Lundqvist introduces the Forum 2012 audience to global food waste problem, tracing the cause of a an alarming planetary problem.

Loss and waste all along the food chain lead to enormous losses of food and nutrients on the global level, creating one of the most visible contemporary paradoxes. Excess production, inefficiencies in distribution and storage, and agricultural production used for animal nutrition: how can we act to break the chain of waste?

For Hans Herren, the urgent need for a radical change in the food system and the balance between production and consumption can only be met by changing the current paradigm. This is why operating in a complex global scenario requires a multidisciplinary approach.

Over the next 40 years, we will need to produce the same quantity of food as that produced and consumed by humanity over the last 8,000 years. This is a major challenge that poses vital questions: how do we absorb the impact of this kind of production? Where should food be  produced? How can we meet global food demand while preserving environmental balance?