Food Systems & Food Waste

Food systems lie at the heart of both climate change and human wellbeing. Today, nearly 40% of all food produced globally is wasted, while over 800 million people continue to face hunger. This imbalance reflects deep inefficiencies across global supply chains — from production and distribution to retail and consumption — with significant environmental, economic, and social consequences.

In this session, you will trace the journey of food from farm to table, beginning in Costa Rica where you will meet farmers cultivating crops such as bananas and explore the challenges of food production in developing regions. Using this as a lens, you will examine where and why food is lost across supply chains.

You will then travel to the United Kingdom to understand how food is distributed and sold, and how systemic overproduction and consumer expectations lead to large volumes of waste at the retail level. Finally, you will explore household consumption patterns in developed economies, where a significant proportion of food waste occurs at the point of use. You will visit a food bank to understand how many people come to rely on them at a time when food waste is so rampant.

The session also takes you to deforested regions in South America, where land has been cleared for cattle rearing, highlighting the environmental impact of meat production — including deforestation, biodiversity loss, and increased carbon emissions.

Through these interconnected experiences, you will gain a systems-level understanding of how food production, consumption, and waste contribute to climate change and global inequality. At the end of this session, you will take away tangible action points — from reducing food waste and making conscious dietary choices to promoting sustainable food practices within schools and communities.