Food Waste

The Issue:

Growing and transporting the global food supply emits an enormous amount of greenhouse gases as we cut down forests and burn fossil fuels. This environmental impact is made worse by the fact that so much of the food produced to feed the world goes to waste, and still so many people remain hungry. Every year humans waste around 1.3 billion tons of food. In the United States, 30-40 percent of food is wasted through processing, post-harvest or by simply being thrown away. When we toss still-edible food into the trash it ends up in landfills where it releases carbon dioxide and methane. This accounts for 8.2 percent of the total human-made greenhouse gas emissions, which drives climate change.

Considering the energy-demanding and polluting methods that it takes to produce this food, the effects of this waste place even more stress on the growing global population and the environment. As the human population continues to surge, the global food system must adapt to lessen its environmental footprint while becoming more efficient at meeting worldwide nutritional needs.

Calls to Action:

Individual Action

• Reduce personal food waste by collecting food scraps for composting.

• Be conscious of only purchasing the amount of food you will need for meals.

Community Action

• Establish a compost collection service for the community to use in a local garden or farm.

• Create a farmer’s market where growers can sell “ugly foods” and community members can support local farms.

Advocate for Change

• Conduct a letter writing or phone banking campaign to urge elected officials to pass policy that reduces food waste at the local, state or national level.

• Start a petition to require local restaurants, groceries and schools to direct unused food to local food kitchens or composting services.