The energy used to produce wasted food generates more than 3.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.
More than a third of all of the food that's produced on our planet never reaches a table. It's either spoiled in transit or thrown out by consumers in wealthier countries, who typically buy too much and toss the excess. This works out to roughly 1.3 billion tons of food, worth nearly $1 trillion at retail prices.
Aside from the social, economic, and moral implications of that waste—in a world where an estimated 805 million people go to bed hungry each night—the environmental cost of producing all that food, for nothing, is staggering.
The water wastage alone would be the equivalent of the entire annual flow of the Volga—Europe's largest river—according to a UN report. The energy that goes into the production, harvesting, transporting, and packaging of that wasted food, meanwhile, generates more than 3.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. If food waste were a country, it would be the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind the U.S. and China.
We tend to take our food for granted in the developed world. Since food is so plentiful, we aren't aware of the tremendous amount that's wasted and the impact that has on world hunger, political stability, the environment, and climate change. Yet when it comes to looking for ways to curb greenhouse gas emissions, food wastage is a relatively easy fix—the low-hanging fruit, so to speak—and it is literally rotting on our tables. It doesn't require any new technology, just more efficient use of what we already have.
Via Bert Guevara, Emmanuel Baeten
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What can we do to minimize food waste? We can attack it from two fronts:
1. Governments can enact food safety standards where they don't exist. This will jump-start the system to properly transport and store perishable foods like meat, fish, dairy, and produce. ...
2. We can all take small steps that will accumulate to make a meaningful difference. Let's buy just the food we need so we throw away less. Let's accept that produce can be top quality and delicious even if it has a slight imperfection in appearance. Let's bring meals home that we don't finish in restaurants. Small changes will yield big results.