Countdown's 158 supermarkets have agreed to give the foodbanks all their waste packaged food which is nearing its use-by date.

Each store will also give $150 of groceries to their local Salvation Army centres for Christmas.

Rising food prices are tightening the squeeze, even on those who can currently afford food, the NGO says.

In an acceleration of a trend which has seen food prices double in the last 20 years, the charity is forecasting food prices will increase by 120-180 per cent in the next 20 years unless there is reform.

"The food system must be overhauled if we are to overcome the increasingly pressing challenges of climate change, spiralling food prices and the scarcity of land, water and energy," said Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive.

The report, Growing a Better Future, acknowledges that climate change will cause half of that increase. But the poverty and justice agency calls on world leaders to increase transparency in commodities markets, regulate futures markets, increase food reserves, end promotion of biofuels and invest in small farming, particularly helping women farmers.

Among the many factors continuing to drive rising food prices in the coming decades, Oxfam predicts that climate change will have the most serious impact.

And it calls on the international community to launch a global climate fund "so that people can protect themselves from the impact of climate change and are better equipped to grow the food they need."

The report says a "broken" food system causes "hunger, along with obesity, obscene waste, and appalling environmental degradation", and "power above all determines who eats and who does not", and says the present system was "constructed by and on behalf of a tiny minority - its primary purpose to deliver profit for them".

"We are sleepwalking towards an avoidable age of crisis," said Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive.

"One in seven people in the planet goes hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone," she said.

Sources

• ucanews.com

The organisation pointed the finger of blame at inefficiencies through the food supply chain.

Industrialised and developing countries consistently waste or lose around 660m tonnes each year, with rich countries wasting 222m tonnes. Waste by rich countries roughly equates to the entire food production of sub-Saharan Africa.

While in rich countries the wasted food is driven by consumers, the main issue for developing countries is food loss due to weak infrastructure: poor storage, processing and packaging.

Amid rising global food prices, the study says that reducing food losses in developing countries could have an immediate and significant impact on livelihoods in some of the world's poorest countries.

The report argues that reducing reliance on large supermarkets could help cut food waste. It also encourages retailers and charities to work together to distribute unsold but perfectly edible food that would otherwise go to waste.

Attention to food storage, packaging and refrigerated delivery systems were key items for poor or developing countries to focus on.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: Green Script