What did you learn about dietary choices from using the footprint calculator? Now imagine that you could translate what you learned into an effective societal policy on food- what would it be? And how would this policy effect the need to alleviate world hunger?
925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization]. That's almost 1 in 7 inhabitants of our planet!
Food & Hunger >
Reducing Carbon footprint through Food
As we know, we have been putting insane amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. One of the main factors to this, is food waste. As humans, we tend to buy more than we can eat, and then once it goes bad, or is expired, we throw it away. By doing so, we are adding more carbon into the environment. Every time that we waste food, we are also wasting the energy that was put into harvesting and growing it. When the food rots or goes to the landfill there is a possibility that methane would be added to the atmosphere as well, another greenhouse gas that adds tons of carbon dioxide into the air.
How do we stop this? Well, one thing that we can do to help slow the dispense of carbon, is by only buying what we can eat. Although its a given that we should already be doing this, we as humans tend to eat with our eyes, meaning we see something and we add it to our basket without thinking twice. One thing we can do, is imagine if we can see ourselves cooking with it or eating it within the next week. If not, don't buy it!! Another thing that we can do is shop locally! The farmers market sells fresh and local produce every week, and fresh produce is known to last longer. So by buying this, not only does it make the shelf life longer, but we're wasting less food! And if we end up eating it we can turn it into compost!