Food Waste

Food Waste.

Nowadays, especially in high-income countries, people are wasting a significant amount of food. While developing countries hold problem on how food is lost through the process of production.

However, with just the food that has been produced, a third of it is being wasted every year. And this ‘food waste’, has been taking the major cause of the environmental problem. 

So how? 

　　　When food is wasted, it causes a significant source of methane. Figures reaching around 3.3 giga-tones of carbon emission. This number is equivalent to emissions made from 39 million passenger vehicles. Because of this, currently third of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the human in which the global food system is responsible.

In food wastes, however, there are more wastes than from the food itself. All the resources in which it went for growing, are additional wastes of resources. For example, nearly a quarter of our water supply is involved as a water supply for food production. Also creating, heavy carbon footprint as well. 

So how can we change this situation? 

　　　　Even with just the food wastes from, Fruit and Vegetables, around half (45%) of it that have been produced are unfortunately sent to waste. 

Fortunately, there's an upside to this large figure. This means, on the other hand, if families started taking care of food wastes, first from just making sure to have no wastes from ‘only’ fruit and vegetables, that would save an extra 3.7 trillion worth of apples. Avoiding just fruit and vegetables is a fairly easy goal. Even the orange peels which seems like a waste, can be changed into jams. And in the worst case, fruit and vegetable waste can be turned into soil fertilizer. 

If it's hard for you to avoid leftovers on fruits and vegetables, you can start with other food. For example roots and tubers. This food too, almost half (45%) of it has been wasted every year. Alone weighing 5,814,000 tonnes of waste. This figure can be equivalent to just over 1 billion bags of potatoes. If the expiry date is what's making the food waste in your house, try putting apple together when keeping potato, as it allows the potato to last longer. 

Don’t let our food waste, waste our environment.