New Report From Second Harvest Reveals Canada's $58 Billion Food Waste Problem

Oct 22, 2024

New research released by Second Harvest, The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste: Update, funded by the generous support of Loblaw Companies Limited (Loblaw), revealed some staggering findings about the amount of food waste generated by Canada's food system.

The report highlights that 46.5% of all the food produced for Canada is wasted. Avoidable food waste — the type that could be redirected to feed people in need — has risen by 6.5%, now accounting for 41.7% of total food waste. Avoidable food waste has an estimated value of $58 billion.

"The 2019 report sounded the alarm on food waste in Canada, and while we've seen some improvements, it's hardly cause for celebration when we continue to waste almost half of our food," said Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest. "The environmental and financial costs of food waste are staggering, especially in light of the current food affordability crisis. We must act now and work together to reduce food waste at every level."

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Video: New research chair appointed to accelerate crop variety development

Funded by Sask Wheat, the Wheat Pre-Breeding Chair position was established to enhance cereal research breeding and training activities in the USask Crop Development Centre (CDC) by accelerating variety development through applied genomics and pre-breeding strategies.

“As the research chair, Dr. Valentyna Klymiuk will design and deploy leading-edge strategies and technologies to assess genetic diversity for delivery into new crop varieties that will benefit Saskatchewan producers and the agricultural industry,” said Dr. Angela Bedard-Haughn (PhD), dean of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at USask. “We are grateful to Sask Wheat for investing in USask research as we work to develop the innovative products that strengthen global food security.”

With a primary focus on wheat, Klymiuk’s research will connect discovery research, gene bank exploration, genomics, and breeding to translate gene discovery into improved varieties for Saskatchewan’s growing conditions.