Don’t Waste Food !!
I saw on Twitter an exciting conversation between Sarah Green Carmichael, an editor at Bloomberg Opinion, and Amanda Little.
Amanda Little is the author of “The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World.” They discussed the topic: Why Is the World’s Food Supply So Vulnerable.
Amanda Little is a journalist writing about the environment and innovation. She is a professor of investigative journalism and science writing at Vanderbilt University.
An exciting conversation where Amanda Little speaks up about a crucial situation is food supply and wasted food.
During the discussion, some topics came up, such as hunger and how COVID makes it worse. We should switch diets, consume less meat; tech like A.I. will help agriculture and focus on stopping waste food.
In her book, she explores how we’ll feed humanity sustainably in the climate change era. She emphasizes that climate models and global crop production will decline every decade for the rest of this century due to:
- Drought
- Heat
- Flooding
- Lack of water supply
Definition of Wasted Food?
According to FAO, food waste refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers, and consumers.
Food is wasted in many ways:
- Fresh produce that deviates from what is considered optimal, such as shape, size, and color, is often removed from the supply chain during sorting operations.
- Foods that are close to, at, or beyond the “best-before” date are usually discarded by retailers and consumers.
- Large quantities of wholesome edible food are often unused or leftover and discarded from household kitchens and eating establishments.
Less food loss and waste would lead to more efficient land use and better water resource management with positive impacts on climate change and livelihoods.
Why is wasted food a problem, a massive problem?
I think the main problem is that we don’t know how to buy our food. This situation is affecting our planet because wasted food has a high impact on greenhouse gas emissions. It produces methane; as you know, this greenhouse gas is even more potent than carbon dioxide.
World Wild Life mentions that about 6-8% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced if we stop wasting food.
In the U.S. alone, the production of lost or wasted food generates the equivalent of 32.6 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions.
If we are talking about money just in the U.S., food waste represents an approximate value of $161 billion; the average American family of four throws out $1,500 in wasted food per year. Source: Rubicon
Suggestions to avoid waste food
If you want to save the planet and save money from your pocket, here some tips that can help to avoid waste food:
- Change your diet habits.
- Buy what you really need.
- Advocate with your family and friends
- Leftovers? Yum !!
- Support local farms
- Food labeling
- Compost