The Food Paradox
The world doesn't have a production problem. It has a distribution problem.
We already grow enough food for 11 billion people. Yet 35% of everything produced is thrown away — while 363 million face acute food insecurity.
8.3B
Global population
UN DESA
11B
People we could feed
UN FAO
363M
Face food insecurity
FSIN, 2025
9M
Lives lost annually
WHO, 2025
The Environmental Cost
Waste isn't just a P&L problem. It's a planetary one.
8–10%
of global GHG emissions
UNEP, 2024
80×
more potent than CO₂
IPCC, 2021 — landfill methane
70%
of freshwater withdrawals
Poore & Nemecek, 2018
80%
of global deforestation
Poore & Nemecek, 2018
The Retail Bottleneck
The average grocer loses $2M a year to unsold produce.
On 1–3% profit margins, that isn't a rounding error — it's the difference between growth and survival. Across the U.S., grocery retailers hemorrhage $88 billion every year.
$2M
Lost per store
FMI, 2025
1–3%
Profit margins
FMI, 2025
$88B
Industry loss
ReFED, 2026
35%
Of food wasted
UN FAO