food waste 

Have you ever opened the fridge door and smelled something stinky and realized that the food you were hoping to eat had gone bad?  Not only is this disappointing, but food waste is also bad for the environment.  You may have heard about food loss or food waste, but you may not know what these terms mean.

Causes and effects

There are many causes of food waste, such as not knowing how to properly store your food, which causes it to go bad, not being mindful of how much you buy or put on your plate, or throwing away perfectly fine but ugly-looking food. All of these end with food in the compost or the trash that a hungry person could have eaten. 

Food that is thrown away will rot and release methane, which contributes more to climate change than CO₂. (Read the page on beef production for more info on methane!)  Not only does this rotting food release methane, but it is also a waste of the time, energy, and resources that went into making the food available. This process of manufacturing and transporting food creates a lot of greenhouse gasses which, when the food gets wasted, was an unnecessary contributor to climate change.

Solutions

Luckily, there are many solutions to food waste.  Some things you can do from home are:

• Being mindful of how much you buy. If you buy less food, there’s less food to waste!

• Planning out meals for the week so you only buy what you’re going to need.

• Organizing your food storage so that you know what you have. This can prevent you from buying more of something that you have enough of, or losing that carton of milk in the back of the fridge that spoils without being eaten!

• If you do let food go to waste, put it in the compost instead of the trash which helps because food releases less methane in the soil than in the landfill.

• Putting things that might go bad faster in the front of your fridge or whatever you store your food in. This can help prevent the spoiling or rotting of food because you’ll remember it’s there and there’s a better chance it will be consumed instead of going bad.

• If you aren’t planning to eat something soon, freeze it so it will last longer and won’t go bad!

• Knowing  yourself and how much you’re going to eat. If you put too much food on your plate, you might not eat it all, and most of it will end up in the compost.

• Supporting organizations  that fight against food waste.

• Donating  non-perishable food to your local food shelf. If you’re not going to eat something, it’s better to give it to someone who needs it than just let it sit in your pantry.

• Buying from more sustainable sources to support the type of food production that is better for the planet (read the page on agriculture for more info)

Some bigger picture solutions could be:

• Grocery stores only throw away produce that have actually gone bad, instead of getting rid of all the ugly ones. 

• The government could subsidize food from local farms to make local food cheaper so that people can buy it. This would mean less transportation and manufacturing, meaning less carbon emitted and less food would get lost.

• Companies like Misfits Market take edible food that grocery stores would normally  throw away and sell it to people who don't mind “ugly” food.

• Here is a video about more creative solutions