FRAME Methodology || Global Food Banking Network (GFN)

FRAME Methodology

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Context:

Each food bank reduces the same volume of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as removing 900 gasoline-powered cars from the road for a year, according to estimates from a new methodology termed as Food Recovery to Avoid Methane Emissions (FRAME).

FRAME methodology

It measures how much emissions and other benefits are gained by redirecting food that would otherwise be wasted to people who need it, through food recovery and redistribution efforts.

Collaboration:

The methodology is developed by The Global Food Banking Network (GFN), in partnership with the Global Methane Hub and the Carbon Trust.

Pilot project:

The FRAME initially began as a pilot project in Mexico and Ecuador.

Benefits:

New FRAME tool will allow food banks, food recovery organisations, private sector companies, scientific experts, and others working in the food loss and waste sector.
This will accurately measure and manage emissions from food recovery and redistribution.
The new FRAME Methodology provides strong and credible evidence that food recovery and redistribution reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also improving food security.

Food banks

●The are volunteer-driven initiatives that recover surplus food from different parts of the food system and distribute it to those facing hunger through community organisations.

Targets

●They address UN’s Target 12.3 of halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030.

Statistics on food loss and waste (FLW)

●Food and Agriculture Organization’s estimations mention that 14 percent of the world’s food is lost after harvest before it reaches retailers.

●The United Nation Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Food Waste Index Report shows that an additional 17 per cent is then wasted at retail and then by the consumers.

●Food taken to landfills mostly generates methane, which traps more than 80 times more heat than CO2 over the first 20 years, making it a more potent gas leading to global warming in the short-term.

●Food systems were estimated to be responsible for around a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, half of which is caused by food loss and waste (FLW).

Highlights Of The 2024 Food Waste Index Report

●Published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), report provides a number of insights on global food waste:

Food waste scale

●In 2022, 1.05 billion tonnes of food were wasted globally, which is 19% of the food available to consumers.

Food waste sources

●Households are responsible for 60% of the world's food waste.

Food waste impact

●Food waste contributes to 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is almost five times the emissions from aviation.

Report improvements

●The 2024 report includes more data from around the world, and expands on the methodology for measuring food waste.

●It also shifts its focus from measuring food waste to finding solutions to reduce it.

For further reading:

https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/methane-green-house-gas

Global Methane Hub

●It is a philanthropic organisation aimed at reducing methane emissions globally and to boosting philanthropic resources allocated to methane reduction.

●The Hub focuses on the energy, agricultural, and waste sectors which account for 96% of human-caused methane emissions.

●It has donated almost $10 million to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition(CCAC) in an effort to financially assist 30 countries with developing plans to reduce their methane emissions.

Sources:

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/food/food-banks-can-prevent-ghg-emissions-equivalent-to-taking-900-cars-off-road-for-a-year-data

https://www.globalmethanehub.org/

PRACTICE QUESTION

Q. Food loss and waste (FLW) has a slew of negative implications in global levels ranging from food security to climate change. In this context, examine the status of food loss and waste (FLW) in India and its impacts on SDGs.( 250 words)