According to the Food Loss Index of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 13.2 percent of food globally is lost on farms after harvest and in the supply chain all the way to retail stages. According to United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) data, food loss and waste associated with unconsumed food is responsible for approximately 8-10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, every food product that is not consumed wastes water, energy, land and labor.
Reducing food waste is an integral part of climate action. A circular economy model in which resources are used more efficiently, waste is reduced and production processes are made sustainable both reduces environmental impacts and makes food systems more resilient. This issue is one of the concrete goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
invisible heroes
Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 calls for halving per capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030 and reducing food losses, including post-harvest losses, in production and supply chains.
In the fight against food loss and waste, women are among the most important actors in the chain that extends from field to table. Globally, small-scale farmers produce approximately one-third of the world's food, and approximately 40 percent of this agricultural workforce is women. Despite this, women are more vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis due to restrictions in access to resources. For example, each day of extremely high temperatures reduces the total value of crops produced by female farmers by 3 percent compared to men.
In Turkey, women are among the unseen heroes of food systems. Approximately 92 percent of women working in the agricultural sector are in unregistered employment. This contribution, which is contract-free, without social security and often seen as unpaid family labor, is one of the mainstays of the country's food production.
Two separate working loads
Hülya Rencüzoğulları Nehir, President of Samandağ Women's Solidarity Association, which is supported within the scope of the "Strong Civil Space for Equality and Women's Empowerment" project implemented by UN Women with the financial support of the European Union, says the following on the subject:
"The women we encounter in the field do not own the land or the product; they are women who work for daily wages in the most labor-intensive stages of production, such as sowing, planting, weeding, tying, harvesting and transportation. This labor, which ensures the continuation of food production, is often not visible in employment data and economic evaluations due to unregistered work and social insecurity. Women's working days do not end when they leave the field. When they return home or to their living spaces (containers, shacks, etc.), they are preparing meals, cleaning, meeting the needs of children, the elderly, "For a woman who works for hours in extreme heat, this means having two different workloads on top of each other in the same day. If the climate crisis makes agricultural production difficult, changes working periods and conditions, or narrows production areas, one of the first consequences of this may be loss of income for daily wage earners."
POWERFUL TOOL OF TRANSFORMATION
The roles played by women in food production, purchasing, preparation and storage of food make them an important part of the solution. FAO Türkiye Deputy Representative Dr. Ayşegül Selışık says:
"Women's knowledge, experience and leadership should be at the center of policies to combat food loss and waste. Empowering women farmers, increasing their access to sustainable agricultural practices and being more represented in decision-making mechanisms are necessary not only for gender equality, but also for ensuring women farmers' access to climate-resilient agricultural practices, land, finance and technology, more resilient food systems, stronger climate policies and a more sustainable future."
Protecting food means not only reducing hunger, but also fighting the climate crisis, protecting natural resources and reducing inequalities. Solutions that make women's labor and leadership visible continue to be one of the most powerful tools of this transformation.
Milliyet-UN Women cooperation
