why do you think we should not waste food
With millions of people being underfed and malnourished around the world, it is imperative that we make the most of the food we have. Methane is 21 times more harmful than carbon dioxide to the planet. Food waste in developed countries is roughly equivalent to all the food produced by developing countries. The environmental implications of food waste alone make it worth avoiding. Experts say food is wasted in both rich and poor countries, but for different reasons. Seafood waste being thrown back into the ocean is also having a detrimental impact on sea life and their natural balance. Rather, they are manufacturer suggestions for peak quality. Food Spoilage — About two-thirds of food waste at home is due to food not being used before it goes bad. https://foodtank.com/news/2015/06/world-environment-day-10-facts-about-food-waste-from-bcfn/ Local and national programs frequently offer free pick-up and provide reusable containers to donors. Restaurants, caterers, corporate dining rooms, hotels, and other food establishments promptly distribute perishable and prepared foods to hungry people in their communities. 3. A massive amount of resources–mostly oil and water–go into producing our food. These are all things that you can do something about. You’ll find some sobering statistics on the UN’s Food and Agricultural website, for example: “every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa”. We throw almost half of our food away. It makes economic sense at the small scale, by lowering household food bills and at the large scale by reducing disposal costs for restaurants, processors and farmers. Respect Food is our way of highlighting the importance of not wasting food. Some people start with one day per week going meatless, and since meat is more expensive you can save a few dollars. Only about half of Americans take leftovers home from restaurants. Food waste is something that affects us all. The food that we send to landfills doesn’t compost and turn into lovely … Can you imagine? Yet we do need to know this stuff. 1. Plan meals, use shopping lists, buy from bulk bins, and avoid impulse buys. He believes that many households in urban areas do not have a good understanding of the quantity of food they need to prepare and eat satisfactorily without waste. Reducing food waste helps the planet too, from the air to the land, to everyone on it. Polluted Water Bodies. 10. The wasted food along with the city wastes is finally dumped into river, pond … In either case, it’s never a bad thing to consider why we shouldn’t squander food. Many people don’t have food to eat I wrote a series of short articles on the subject, re-published, for greater awareness, on Living Green Mag.. My article We Have More Than Enough, And So We Waste was chosen as the top 10, getting me to the second round. Make sure you're not throwing foods out before you should. Non-perishable and unspoiled perishable food can be donated to local food banks, soup kitchens, pantries, and shelters. Food makes up almost 13 percent of the U.S. waste stream, but a much higher percent of landfill-caused methane. Though these may be less expensive per ounce, they can be more expensive overall if much of that food is discarded. Just the food wasted in Europe alone would be enough to feed 200million starving people. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/10/uk-throwing-away-13bn-of-food-each-year-latest-figures-show. It happens anywhere food has a presence; the grocery store, restaurants, in our homes, at schools, on farms, in production and even in transportation. Finish what you have at home first, then go grocery shopping. Food waste still occurs at the production and processing stages but at a lower percentage and with fewer emissions. The icing on the proverbial cake is then our wasted food is taken to the landfill where it decomposes and produces methane -- one of the nastiest greenhouse gases contributing to the climate crisis. Why do we waste so much food and what should we do about it? Show this to your kids to let them know how much effort it takes for food to be put on their table and let them understand why we should not waste food. The "use by" date is … Supermarkets, properly considered, are the cure for food shortages and waste, not the cause of … Maybe you show up at the grocery store hungry, and indulge in a few too many purchases. Compost. Learn When Food Goes Bad. Perhaps the sell-by date has passed and you choose to toss expired food because you think you might get sick. With 3.3billion tons of carbon dioxide produced, food waste has a big impact on the world climate. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and consumption.Global food loss and waste amount to between one-third and one-half of all food produced. We won’t be able to keep this up anyway. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Freeze fresh produce and leftovers if you won't have the chance to eat them before they go bad. From the severe effects it has on the environment, to how it can deepen the hole in our pockets, food waste is everyone’s problem. More than 40% of the food in the United States each year is wasted. It’s also leading to a massive amount of money wasted already, with each household in the UK alone throwing away approximately £470 worth of perfectly edible food. Many local food banks will pick up food donations free of charge, saving you warehouse storage and dis… More than 40 million Americans are food insecure — meaning that they do not have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. Today is National Voter Registration Day! Each American wastes $28 to $43 of food or about 20 pounds, per month. Leftovers are usually thrown away which end … Think well first, before you throw away or ruin any food, think about the children that are dying everydays starving ... For every piece of food we waste, someone, somewhere else, goes hungry. The global population is projected to reach 9.8 billion by … According to the latest food waste statistics from 2015, the UK binned 7.3 million tonnes of food, of which 4.4 million tonnes was that avoidable waste that was once okay but we left too long. We can reduce our food waste. Why do we waste so much food and what should we do about it? There are several mobile apps that can help and FoodShift has an online guide with numerous suggestions to lessen food waste, from work to school to home. Twenty-five million people could get fed, if we reduced our waste by 15 percent. Each person in Europe and North America wastes more food than their own body weight per year, which only shows how big of a problem it really is. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! Learn more about the causes of food waste, the impact of food waste on our environment, and what we can do to reduce food waste. Eat Leftovers. Why? Finish the food at home first before you buy more. Be a Seed Saver. But the change begins with you -- your next shop, your next meal, your next order. So here goes: There are environmental, ethical and economic reasons why food matters. Maybe you show up at the grocery store hungry, and indulge in a few too many purchases. Wasted food is the single largest contributor to collected waste not to mention that it wastes water, labour, fuel, money, & love! Indulge them a little bit and serve that. Request Smaller Portions. Up to half of the food the world produces is never eaten. Furthermore, if the waste you are eliminating or reducing is regulated under state or federal law - and your reductions are significant enough - you might be able to avoid costly permits and government approvals. Out of the 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins produced in the United States every year, … Large manufacturers, supermarket chains, wholesalers, farmers, food brokers, and organized community food drives typically give food to food banks. With more food being wasted, landfills continue to inch higher and higher, attracting wildlife of all sorts and putting delicate ecosystems out of balance. Composting food scraps can reduce their climate impact while also recycling their nutrients. Our products go further than making your life easier – they make it easier for everyone else too. Reducing food loss and waste could benefit them, their families and the world, now and in the future. Wasted food = methane gas. Every time food goes uneaten, huge amounts of land, water, and energy are wasted. About 40% of the food in the United States ends up in the trash.Wasted food is the single largest component going into our municipal landfills - that’s $165 billion in food thrown away every year. Citrus peel is something we throw away but there are things that can be done with it (C) image Anna Pitt. Citrus fruits and cherries top the list as the most wasted fruits, and sweet potatoes, onions, and greens are the vegetables we're most inclined to toss. Be creative. Perfectly good food for the most part -- food we have either bought too much of, believe has gone bad, or don't think is pretty enough to eat. Wholesome … In restaurants, if there is something you don’t eat in a … Mine Your Fridge. Food prices are expected to rise by up to 84% by 2050 solely because of how climate change will affect production. Respect Food is our way of highlighting the importance of not wasting food. And, don't forget those supersize portions, the ones we can't resist and we can't finish. But we do need to understand that it's not an important point. 1 That’s 80 billion pounds of food and equates to more than $161 billion 2, approximately 219 pounds 3 of waste per person and 30-40 percent 4 of the US food … See these three reasons why we need to stop food waste. If you also want to eat healthier, you can reduce the amount meat and increase the plant-based choices throughout the week. In addition to these financial advantages, waste prevention is the right thing to do. It is instead thrown away. 12 billion trees are cut every year for paper production, keep in mind when printing. © 2018 by GRUNDIG Intermedia GmbH. How to take care of your fruit and vegetables, How to store tinned and canned goods once they’ve been opened. 51; Over-Preparing — The remaining third of household food waste is the result of people cooking or serving too much food. Or you run out of time to use those extra fruits and veggies in the fridge. Many fruits and vegetables are thrown out because their size, shape, or color are not "right". Know the Shelf Life. Get this: If food waste was a country, it would be ranked number three in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. With 3.3billion tons of carbon dioxide produced, landfills continue to inch higher and higher, detrimental impact on sea life and their natural balance, https://foodtank.com/news/2015/06/world-environment-day-10-facts-about-food-waste-from-bcfn/, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/10/uk-throwing-away-13bn-of-food-each-year-latest-figures-show. All rights reserved. Unsurprisingly, Keller is an advocate against food waste. ©2021 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Donate. Every little bit of food saved helps, and it can make more of a difference than you may think. Part of HuffPost Environment. Our pockets He opines that it is wiser to eat everything that you cook, so you do not have to discard them in the waste bin. It’s a huge problem, and it affects all of us. Need some more mind-boggling stats? Don't waste your food if you know what's good for you. We buy too much food, don’t clean our plates and have enough money that you can always buy something else. To compound the problem, it's not just the food from the farm, table or fridge that we waste. If we each do our part we can lighten our footprint while saving money. We waste 40 percent of our food in the United States. Omit food you don’t want. Perhaps the sell-by date has passed and you choose to toss expired food because you think you might get sick. One in six Americans go hungry. Websites such as www.lovefoodhatewaste.com can help you get creative with recipes to use up anything that might go bad soon. If you want to contribute to the cause at home, have a look at our delicious Respect Food recipes. Food waste in the United States is no joke. Not only did he waste precious food, but he also wasted money. A lot of kids go through stages of picky eating or only wanting to eat one thing. It's the right thing to do! Ask your restaurant to pack up your extras so you can eat them later. The environmental and financial implications are staggering. The average American family of four generates 36 pounds of wasted food each week. Frozen foods remain safe indefinitely. Climate change and ecosystems As Grundig, only in 2016, we’ve saved 25 tons of food, 4 community kitchens have been launched and 48,300 dishes served across these projects – all done with wasted/surplus food. Or you run out of time to use those extra fruits and veggies in the fridge. So keep these facts and other food waste tips and tricks in mind next time you are about to throw your food away. Our products go further than making your life easier – they make it easier for everyone else too. With our EcoChamp products having such little impact on the environment with award-winning results, we strive to help the planet. Buy Funny Fruit. A survey by Johns Hopkins revealed there is a sizable amount of people who know food waste breaks down in … Use Your Freezer. You should encourage other foods, but do not waste a lot of food when they will not eat it. 2. Wasted food would be the third largest producer of carbon dioxide if it were a country. If they do not finish their meal, put it in the fridge and warm it up for the next day. Research by waste and resource charity, Wrap, shows that out of the food we throw away in the UK, 70 per cent could have been eaten – worth £15 billion every year, and costing almost £70 per month for the average family with children. Food waste as a whole amounts to $1trillion lost. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that a typical American throws out 40 percent of fresh fish, 23 percent of eggs, and 20 percent of milk. Don’t buy food to stock up – we’re not entering a famine. Environment, Public Policy, and Civic Engagement Program Director, The San Francisco Foundation, and Member of The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter. An estimated 50 million Americans don't have enough to eat. Sources: But food waste is a problem that can be solved.Even if the problem seems bigger than what you as an individual can do, there are things you can do to mitigate food waste that can have a big impact. Most foods can be safely consumed well after their use-by dates. In developed countries, like the United States and Western Europe, the majority of food wasted is by consumers. Reducing food waste is environmentally important as it keeps food out of landfills. Natural Resources Defense Council's excellent recently-released report includes the following handy tips on how to cut down on food waste: Shop Wisely. But food waste is about so much more than what is in our wallets – here’s why: Food has a carbon footprint UNEP held a contest for World Environment Day on the topic of food waste in line with the theme, Think.Eat.Save – Reduce your foodprint! Freeze them if you don't want to eat immediately. Food waste or food loss is food that is not eaten. Specifically, be creative with leftover food. Consumers are responsible for the majority of food waste in the United States and can play a major role in its reduction. Restaurants will often provide half-portions upon request at reduced prices. One of the biggest factors to food waste is many people simply do not realize how much food they throw away, nor do they realize the environmental impacts of that waste. Climate change isn’t just bad for the planet. family of four generates 36 pounds of wasted food, 50 million Americans don't have enough to eat. "Sell-by" and "use-by" dates are not federally regulated and do not indicate safety, except on certain baby foods. Here’s Why Americans Waste So Much Food ... to waste less food — but not for the reasons you might think. Minimum lentgh is 3 characters! 50 Food spoilage at home occurs due to improper storage, lack of visibility in refrigerators, partially used ingredients and misjudged food needs. “Reduce food waste by … Search keyword is too short. Most people don’t realize how often they waste food and the negative impacts it can have for food security, the environment, and climate change. Food waste, that scourge that sends more than a third of our food supply to rot and is a major contributor to climate change, seems like it should be … It can be easy to hear the statistics about environmental crises like food waste and climate change and have a “head in the sand” reaction; the problem seems too big to tackle, so why even try? Buying these perfectly good funny fruit, at the farmer's market or elsewhere, utilizes food that might otherwise go to waste. From the severe effects it has on the environment, to how it can deepen the hole in our pockets, food waste is everyone’s problem. Teach them early to like leftovers. What is important is bringing that industrial logistics chain to those places which do not have it in order to save that 50% of the harvest. Don't succumb to marketing tricks that lead you to buy more food than you need, particularly for perishable items. Money, labor and finite resources go into the production, processing, packaging and transportation of all that food -- the equivalent of $165 billion that we end up throwing out as food waste every year. Here’s some “food” for thought: The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans discarding nearly 40 million tons of food every year. Maybe you visited a restaurant, and they served you and your two small children massive portions that they could not possibly finish.