Food Waste in Our Households
The effects of food waste on the ongoing battle with world hunger is obvious, however there is so much more being effected that many don’t realize. Food waste has been proven to create economic loss, negatively impact climate change, and increase loss of resources.
In Cynthia Marikano’s story “How to Reduce Food Waste in Our Households (And Why it Matters),” she explores these ideas as well as some solutions that have been made by different companies and organizations around the world. In this post, I will go over my findings from reading her article.
It was found by the Food and Agriculture Organization that the waste of agricultural product from food waste has an economic cost of about 750 billion USD. This excessive farming and food production is threatening biodiversity and degrading soil in areas that are already experiencing strong land degradation. Not only is the production of food putting unnecessary pressure on our natural resources, the decomposing of food we don’t eat generates greenhouse gasses equivalent to an estimated 3.3 gigaton’s. That is almost 7 trillion pounds. If that isn’t enough, our excessive agriculture is responsible for threatening around 66% of global wildlife (Marikano, 2020).
These stats are too great to ignore. There are small changes we can all make in order to help us help others, and it is a small price to pay for the amount of irreversible damage this is continuing to cause. As seen in Cynthia’s blog, here are some baby steps everyone should be aware of and make an effort to include in their daily lives:
- Don’t grocery shop as often
- Use smaller plates to eat and serve food
- Properly store fruits and vegetables to increase shelf life
- Share food when going out
- Compost
It is clear how all of these could help us eventually reduce the food wasted in the world and be able to reallocate that wasted food into the mouths of the people who need it most. By buying food less, we are allowing ourselves to eat what we have before buying more and increasing waste. By using smaller plates we are reducing the common act of over-serving and therefore not finishing a plate of food. By increasing the shelf life of our food, we are increasing the time frame we have to consume it and therefore reducing waste. All of these tips have a purpose, even if they are small, and if everyone could incorporate these simple practices into their daily lives, we would live to see a better future.
Marikano, Cynthia (2020). “How to Reduce Food Waste in Our Households (And Why it Matters)” Retrieved March 7, 2021 from https://medium.com/one-table-one-world/how-to-reduce-food-waste-in-our-households-and-why-it-matters-5ea5501edaba
