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 >
1/3 of the food produced in the world every year is wasted
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, approximately 1.3 BILLION TONS of food is wasted every year worldwide. Yet 925 million people are still left hungry. $165 billion dollars of food (40%) is wasted each year in the US alone. We need to implement systems in our communities and countries to utilize all this thrown away food and optimally get it to those who need it most.
I have heard stories of people getting fired at restaurants for trying to give away unsold food to homeless people that would have otherwise been thrown away. This needs to stop. Change starts with one person and there should be laws that enable people to make that change without losing their job.
Another example of ways to repurpose trashed food is by using leftover scraps from produce used in the kitchen to plant and re-grown in our homes. There are hundreds of websites and articles that show examples of how to do this.
Sources:
http://www.fao.org/save-fo od/resources/keyfindings/en/
http://www.diyncrafts.com/4732/repurpos … hen-scraps
https://foodrevolution.org/blog/reduce- … om-scraps/
It is crazy how much food is wasted yearly and a change definitely needs to be made. Some of your suggestions are great especially that we with our left overs we should make more of an effort to compost. If we are unable to avoid the large amounts of excess food, then composting is a inexpensive and natural way to deal with it. This compost helps nourish your garden to produce potentially more food so it becomes a cycle. Instead of having to deal with the left overs in the end, there are some ways to avoid producing them. Some grocery stores and restaurants donate food to homeless shelters and soup kitchens to provide the less fortunate with food. This is a great way to avoid waste because it also helps the community grow and gives support to those who need it. This issue of wasted food can be traced back to the fact that nowadays everything comes in excess and everyone always wants more. If we decrease portion sizes, plan out meals and make the most out of the fo od we eat then this problem can be progressively removed from our world.
[Food loop for consumers_0](//muut.com/u/footprint/s1/:footprint:hfjo:foodloopforconsumers_0.png.jpg)
My family wastes a lot of food through out the year but we don't think about the people out there starving because they don't have food.