MARKET 02 / GLOBAL EVIDENCE + LOCAL CONTEXT
Keep good food in the system, and make a healthy diet easier to afford.
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THE MARKET THESIS
This is the quantity reported by the cited institution. It is context for a question, rather than a forecast of startup revenue.
Each block = 25 million people
2025 data; 2026 report
Global; population estimate
Estimated people who faced hunger in 2025. Hunger and the unaffordability of healthy diets are different measures and are not added together.
FAO and partner UN agencies2026; hunger estimate for 2025Visuals reproduce the cited signal, including its original scope. Rounded unit graphics are reading aids; the displayed figure and source definition govern the claim.
FAO’s 2026 food-security report estimates that 645 million people faced hunger in 2025 and that healthy diets remain unaffordable for about 2.7 billion people. These describe different problems and cannot be added together.FAO and partner UN agencies
UNEP’s 2024 Food Waste Index estimates 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste at retail, food-service and household level in 2022, including inedible parts. This is distinct from losses earlier in the supply chain.UNEP
A proposed operating map for food systems. Read the handoffs before choosing a product to build.
Wholesalers, distributors, processors, schools, hospitals, hospitality groups and food retailers. A hungry household is a beneficiary, but it is not automatically a paying customer for a logistics product.
Track one product or kitchen workflow from receipt to disposal. Weigh avoidable waste separately from inedible material and document purchase prices, food safety, labour time and actual destinations of recovered food.
Editorial system map derived from the research brief. The sequence is a framework for discovery, with no claim that a Pheonix programme, customer or pilot is operating.
An impact claim should survive a difficult question. Design the measurement before you design the success story.
Define the people, geography, existing service and time period. Record the full cost before the intervention.
Use the proposed experiment above as a starting question. Agree the local scope, duration, comparison and safeguards before beginning.
Ask what would have happened otherwise. Compare like with like and record how much uncertainty remains.
Avoidable food loss per kilogram handled
Cost of a safe nutritious meal
Supplier income after logistics charges
Food-safety incidents and energy used in storage
Check who is left out, what the intervention costs and which negative effects would invalidate the claim. Involve the people expected to benefit.
Proposed measurement pathway. No baseline, pilot result, participant count or achieved impact is being reported in this diagram.
WATCH THE TRADEOFF
A tonne collected is not a tonne of avoided waste or a nutritious meal delivered.
Extra refrigeration can trade lower spoilage against higher energy use.
Savings may accrue to intermediaries without improving farmer or household outcomes.
Publication dates and geographic scope are shown for each source. Linked institutions are references, with no affiliation or endorsement implied.
FAO and partner UN agencies · 2026; hunger estimate for 2025
GlobalFood handling between suppliers and urban vendors deserves attention alongside farm productivity. The University of Ghana's postharvest hub explicitly works on storage, drying, quality management and value addition.
Proposed wedge: validate affordable post-harvest tools with peri-urban suppliers before scaling an agricultural platform.
The national food strategy addresses supply diversity, sustainable production, nutrition and waste. That supports several business models; it does not establish that energy-intensive local production is always the best answer.
Food affordability depends on logistics and power as well as farm output. National World Bank analysis identifies storage and cold-chain constraints as priorities; Lagos pilots need their own route-level evidence.
Proposed wedge: prevent edible surplus before treating unavoidable scraps as waste.
Treat affordable good food and food-system efficiency as connected goals. London's Food Strategy covers households, retail, institutions, growing, and environmental impact.
The county's food strategy update highlights traceability, food safety and coordination. That supports investigating information gaps in existing markets rather than assuming that farmers need another standalone marketplace.
Reduce avoidable food waste while protecting nutrition and affordability. The Food and Climate Strategy connects procurement, distribution, surplus recovery, and dietary change.
Improve reliable food access across an existing service network. The task force's 2024 recommendations call for better referral and delivery coordination, including culturally appropriate food.
Improve income and reliable market access for the rural south's producers. Ligue os Pontos explicitly connects agricultural viability with environmental protection and urban demand.
Proposed wedge: help food businesses switch supply safely and waste less when disruption occurs.
Proposed wedge: make food-scrap separation work in dense apartment settings before scaling collection technology.
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