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 >
How much food is wasted and how could we use this wasted food?
The amount of food wasted by humans that could be used for feeding the homeless and those in need is astonishing! Around 2.5 BILLION tons of food produced globally is either lost or wasted. We could be using this food for many things like feeding people without the money to buy food who rely on food slips or something similar. Finally, this manufactured food is worth around $230 billion, which could be used for housing, waste-efficient clothing, healthcare or education. In conclusion, the world is losing billions in wasted food, so logically, this should be a high-priority problem.
People often buy or cook more food that they need so they have to throw it away. I think that people should be informed about the problem of food waste. People are not aware that the problem of food waste has huge influence on them. Also, they should know what to do with food that they want to throw away. I agree that they can give that food to poor people but it can also be composted or given to animals. But, I think that the best way to reduce food waste is to educate people about planning how much food they need. People should carefully plan what amount of food they buy and plan their meals so that they don't have leftovers. If some food is not eaten they could froze it and eat the next day or later in the week.
Today in society people are buying food at an excessive rate. In the US 30-40% of food is wasted overall. In 2010, 133 billion pounds of food were wasted which is 161 billion dollars. All of this food that was wasted could have gone to helping those who need food and don't have access to it. Or even the money could have been saved and gone to something different. Everything in the process of food waste is bad for the environment. The transportation of food doesn't do any good, and for that food to just to go to waste doesn't good any good either. When food gets wasted it ends up in landfills. Over time is starts to decompose and that produces methane. When it gets into the atmosphere it oxidizes and becomes toxic through indirect emissions. Methane adds to warming significantly more then Carbon Dioxide. It has %80 more effect on warming than CO2. 25 percent of global warming is caused by methane which is all a result from man made actions. Overall food waste produces a whole chain reaction of things that contribute to global warming and climate change.
I also want to add that takeout in America is very wasteful. According to a recent report by https://moveforhunger.org/startling-rea … %20donated; a half a pound of food is wasted per meal in restaurants. This includes what's left in the kitchen and on the customers plates. Additionally, 85% of this leftover food is thrown out instead of being recycled or donated. Around 828 million people face world hunger each day and here we have 85% of extra food being thrown away and not being used for good and sustainable purposes. I think when ordering at a restaurant, people should be more conscious of how much food they are ordering. Can I finish this portion by myself? Am I ordering more than I can eat tonight? Will I finish the leftovers? These questions are key in the process of trying to cut down on food waste. Food waste is a huge and very serious problem in the U.S. https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work … s%20wasted states that 40% of all food in America is wasted. That's around $408 billion in food wasted per year! That is money that could be put towards school fundings, healthcare, sustainable housing and so much more! There are some solutions that families could do to help with this food waste. One being if you have leftovers or groceries that you know you wont eat or finish in the fridge, you can freeze them and save them for later! Freezing food slows down the movement of molecules causing the microbes to enter a dormant stage, meaning it is preserved and the food will last longer! Another thing you could do is create a meal plan and compost! Creating a meal plan allows you to buy foods that you know you will use and to not buy foods that you will not need. Having a concrete plan makes it easier to not order out because you know what you will be making for your meals. By composting, you can reduce the amount of methane emissions into our atmosphere. You are also making good use of your food scraps and waste because you can reuse it for soil to grow new food! Overall, we can all make efforts to solve the global problem of food waste and we should be more conscious of the amount of food that we purchase day to day.
According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about one-third of all food produced worldwide, or approximately 1.3 billion tons, is wasted annually. This wasteful practice has significant social, economic, and environmental impacts, such as increasing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to global food insecurity. One solution to combat food waste is to redirect surplus food to food banks and other organizations that work to alleviate hunger and malnutrition. (FAO, 2019)
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). (2019). The State of Food and Agriculture 2019. http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/ca6030en/