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 >
I learned from the footprint calculator that a lot of food goes to waste in some
parts of the world, especially the U.S. I think it would be effective to put a policy in place at places like sit down restaurants where they give you your meal in small portions so you don't put food to waste.
I completely agree, also sit down restaurants reduce carbon by using reusable plates etc.
At sit down restaurants maybe instead of having your meals is smaller portions, there cold be different options so that people who won't eat a lot can get smaller portions and those who do eat a lot can still get their large portions. This would make a huge impact and reduce wasted food by a lot. The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization puts the total carbon footprint of food wastage around 4.4 GtCO2. Having the option of smaller portion could significantly reduce this number.
I agree in that there should be portion options. If they have a small, Medium, and large people could better customize their meal to their size and how hungry they are. I also think that we should reduce the amount of plastic cups and silverware in takeout restaurants.
I totally agree with you, studies have shown that according tohttp://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/ “about one third of the food that is produced in the world for consumption, approximately 1.3 billion tonnes is wasted.” Some of this is due to expiration dates on the food people are buying. People aren’t realizing how long a certain food or produce should last in a household, and when it comes time that they want to use the food they realize its expired and it goes to waste. That is one reason why food wastage in the country is so high. Another reason would be the produce in the grocery stores. If a produce stays too long in the grocery store or people aren’t buying them, the employees must take them down and take them too waste because they get bad. With all the food in a grocery store some of them do go to waste which increases the waste in the country that is also added in with waste from people homes
This is a really good idea. I feel like restaurants tend to give very large portions in most places. This is super unnecessary and this food could be used a lot more somewhere else. Also, a lot of times this is not the restaurant's fault. Most of the time, the blame is on the customer. We should be smarter about ordering the right amount of food so that none of it goes to waste. As Americans, we waste 40% of our food every year. Another way we can fix this is by only buying food from the grocery store when you need it. Although this may be inconvenient for most households, this will help prevent having to throw out spoiled food and food you forgot you ever bought.
I agree with your perspective regarding the problem about wasted food, Caroline. I also like your idea about a portion size system in restaurants. Altogether, restaurants have tried to limit the amount of food they waste. If a restaurant purchases an excessive number of raw ingredients and does not cook them all, then the ingredients are picked up by food recovery programs. These programs will then give the ingredients to local soup kitchens, food pantries or food banks. Even though these organizations rarely accept cooked food unless the meals are delivered immediately to those in need, they do take bruised fruits and vegetables. Another method one can adopt to save wasted food is through re-purposing. Instead of buying fresh produce, vegetables and fruits every day, we can create new dishes with our leftovers from previous meals. My family and I also eat our leftovers from dinner for lunch the following day, which is another alternative to prevent wasting food. Cooking with frozen ingredients which have a longer shelf life than products that do not contain any preserva tives can also reduce food waste. However, frozen foods are sold in plastic packaging which can lead to greenhouse gas emissions when the plastic is burned in landfills. Furthermore, we should take account of what we need when we go grocery shopping because the food can surpass its expiration date like Inyeneabasi mentioned. But, there is a solution to this problem. We can compost rotten food in our home gardens to produce fertile and nutrient rich soil. If we follow these practices, we can lower the amount of energy used in food and consumption. We will put an end to world hunger!
Resources:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-dail … 69841.html
https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/food/food-waste-0