Title: Food-local
Course: Project week - Leuphana-Copy

Q: [Image: Trash bin | (c) by Omarukai on Flickr]

From farmers to consumers – food is wasted along the entire food chain. Globally, one third of the food produced for human consumption is thrown away.

How many percent of food waste occurs at the retail and consumer level in industrialized countries?
- 21 %
- 63 %
- 40 %
- 15 %
- 33 %
A: 40 %
Feedback: Did you know...?! A third of the food produced for human consumption is wasted. That amounts to approximately 1.3 billion tons per year. In industrialized countries over 40% of food waste occurs at the retail and consumer level. Think about it: In your country, four out of ten products that you could eat are thrown away! Sadly, in developing countries the same amount of food loss occurs during harvest and food processing. In Europe, 90 million tons of food are wasted annually. The USA generates approximately 35 million tons of food waste per year and Germany throws away around 7 million tons of food while only representing a third of the U.S. population. [fa-leanpub] Learn more about this topic and visit the European Commission on Food Waste.

Q: [Image: Fresh fruits | (c) by Michael Caven on Flickr]

Defeating hunger is one of the most crucial challenges the world faces today. Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.

Say you randomly picked 100 persons living on our planet: How many of them would not have enough to eat?
- 6
- 4
- 13
- 25
A: 13
Feedback: Did you know...?! There are 842 million undernourished people in the world today. This means that one out of eight people does not have enough food to live a healthy and active life. Hunger and malnutrition are in fact the number one risk to health worldwide. It is a contradiction of our time that there is actually more than enough food in the world to feed everyone. [fa-leanpub] Learn more about this topic and visit the United Nations World Food Program.

Q: This is one of the hotly debated topics in modern agriculture - and not just since the controversies brought about by the TTIP agreement: GMOs. Genetically-modified organisms. In simple terms, these are agricultural products that have been genetically altered. This is done using genetic engineering techniques, that is, DNA from different species are combined, hoping that their advantages will add up. For example, tomatoes could be merged with DNA of another plant to make them rot slower, or corn could be modified to produce richer crops.

[Image: Sun is drying the corn | (c) Alternative Heat on Flickr]

What were the first genetically modified organisms (GMO) that have been sold to consumers in the USA?
- Potatoes
- Salmon
- Corn
- Pigs
- Tomatoes
A: Tomatoes
Feedback: Did you know...?! Tomatoes were the first GMOs that were sold to American consumers in 1994. The tomatoes called "FlavrSavr" contained a modified gene that should drastically reduce the formation of polygalacturonase (PG) and therefore stop a tomato's softening process. However, the "FlavrSavr" did not meet the researchers' expectations and disappeared from U.S. supermarkets only four years later. Today, GMOs can again be found in American stores. However, 26 states now have the legal authority to require appropriate food labeling to ensure transparency for the consumers. [fa-leanpub] Learn more about this topic and visit the Center for Food Safety and the GMO Compass.