The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on Thursday that both agricultural production methods and food systems must move away from fossil fuel dependence towards renewable energy sources. The FAO report on ‘energy-smart food’ released ahead of the Rio+20 conference, also made clear that to improve food security and achieve sustainability it is important to both increase food energy efficiency and cut food losses. The FAO highlighted the fact that global food production from farm to fork accounts for 30% of total energy use, with more than 70% of this consumed ‘beyond the farm gate’ during transport, processing, packaging and marketing. As one third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted - 1.3 billion tons per year - almost 40% of the energy used in the food chain is wasted as well. To tackle this problem, the FAO are calling on companies and organisations to join SAVE FOOD, an initiative set up by UN agencies and the private sector to reduce food losses and waste.