OREANDA-NEWS. BASF is hosting a week-long program in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to address one of the world's most pressing future challenges: how to reduce food waste and crop losses to feed an ever-growing world population. Each year, roughly one-third of the food produced for human consumption gets lost or wasted globally - this amounts to about 1.3 billion metric tons. To identify sustainable and innovative solutions to tackle this challenge, thought leaders, scientists, industry experts, students and citizens are participating in the Creator Space(tm) tour stop in Sao Paulo. The program will take place at the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture (MuBE). It is the fourth stop of BASF's Creator Space tour - a year-long, global event series launched by BASF in its 150th anniversary year.

"As we celebrate our 150th anniversary this year, we are connecting people to make contributions which help to solve future challenges of our society. Throughout BASF's history, chemistry has proven itself to be a facilitator for new ideas and innovative solutions. This is how we live up to our corporate purpose 'We create chemistry for a sustainable future,'" said Michael Heinz, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE.

"Agriculture is one of the main foundations of the Brazilian economy. The country is the world's second largest food producer. Although Brazil was removed from the world hunger map in 2014, the country still faces problems of food waste and crop losses," said Ralph Schweens, President of BASF in South America.

During the Creator Space tour stop in Sao Paulo, BASF wants to identify solutions together with its stakeholders to increase sustainability in agriculture and foster food security. It is projected that by the year 2050, more than nine billion people will live on our planet. By then, agricultural production will need to increase by 70% to feed the world's population. The reduction of food waste and crop losses is one important means to meet this challenge.