World Information Transfer; Gregory Swistel

United Nations, Conference room 3

Organization of the United Nations Environmental Protection (UNEP)

5 June 2013; Time: 1:15-3:00PM

Speakers:

Mr. Hunyrate Chenie; UNEP Deputy Director of the New York Offices head of Policy and Interagency Affairs — Mr. Enkhsetseg Ochir ; UNEP permanent representative of Mongolia;- —Mr. Toshihiko Murata; New York liaison and Executive Officer of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN.—–Mrs. Sasha Lyutse ; Advocate with the Sustainable Food and Agriculture Program

Attended by:   Sunny TC Hor, Alyssa Strasser, Norah L. Crossnohere,Greg Swistel,Marli Kasdan,Mary Lam Ching Yin ,Janice HiuWing Wong

 In 1972, the United Nations created the UNEP and dedicated a day to helping the environment called the World Environment Day, on June 5th, a day that stimulates global environmental awareness.

Mr. CHENIE today concludes that food loss is a starling issue that must be addressed. Currently, 1 in 7 people in the world go to sleep hungry. He also cites Mongolia is an excellent example of a country that has made many leaps forward to achieving sustainable development from nutritional standpoint.

Mr. Och speaks today stressing the importance of being able to provide for the future generations while using global partnership to achieve this. Mongolia has made several steps forward to transitioning the rest of the world into a green economy. With a smaller population, more policies pertaining to environmental sustainable development, Mongolia has advanced significantly, with the president being awarded the Nobel Earth Laurette a few years ago.

Part of the transition to Mongolia’s green economy is to minimize the carbon footprint and “living in harmony with nature.” He quotes the Mongolian President who states that, “our planet earth is losing its vitality ….environmental protection is not a single day campaign.” Though Mongolia is only responsible for minimal global carbon emissions, the impact of climate change from greenhouse emissions is disproportionately affecting Mongolia. The average annual temperature over 70 years in Mongolia have increased by 2.1 degrees Centigrade versus a ~1 degree centigrade increase globally.

Mr. Toshihiko Murata believes that global hunger can be partially combated by minimizing wasting food, though creation of a strong joint initiative food campaign (between the FAO and the UNEP). He states that, on a global scale, 1/3 of the food produced is lost or wasted. 500 million more people would be able to be fed if none of the food produced was not lost or wasted. He also believes the definition of food production,

transportation and consumption must be separated between developed and developing countries. In the case of low income countries, the problem spurs from the entire systems as there are problems apparent every step of the way. By contrast in developed countries, people have several food options, as markets are everywhere. A large problem however is that the picky consumer only chooses the best food, creating a substantial amount of food loss.

In connection, Mrs. Lyutse uses America as an example. Americans waste 10 times the amount of food compared to developing countries. In addition, 25% of water in the United States goes to food production, the food of which that never is consumed.

Despite the waste, there are solutions. In Stop N’ Shop, the company changed the way they display there food by only showing 1 or 2 days worth of food on display yet still make the displays look plentiful through using “dummy stacking”.