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 >
Food Wate
We waste 40 percent of our food in the United States. We throw almost half of our food away. Also, it's not just the food from the farm, table or fridge that we waste. Every time food goes uneaten, huge amounts of land, water, and energy are wasted. Money, labor and finite resources go into the production, processing, packaging and transportation of all that food. This is the equivalent of $165 billion that we end up throwing out as food waste every year. The worst part 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. Methane is 21 times more harmful than carbon dioxide to the planet. Researchers say, if food waste was a country, it would be ranked number three in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
About one third of food produced worldwide gets wasted a year alone. In the USA, organic waste is the second highest component of landfills, which are the largest source of methane emissions. This is ethically, economically, and environmentally wrong, but can be stopped if each person does their part. http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/food_waste_the_facts