Are you ready for a punch in the gut? Seriously, I would brace for this one. It’s going to hurt. Here we go, from page 3 of Food Foolish:
“The embodied carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in food waste alone represent 3.3 billion metric tons. That’s all the energy that goes to produce the food we never eat, including fuel for tractors used for planting and harvest, electricity for water pumps in the field, the power for processing and packaging facilities, and more. In total, those emissions are more than twice the emissions of all cars and trucks in the United States. Viewed another way, if food waste were a country by itself, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the United States.”
Russia, Brazil, India, Japan, Germany – all countries that can point a finger at global food waste and say, “Hey, at least we aren’t as bad as that guy!”
So that’s it. I’m not going to throw any more statistics at you this time around. I’m going to just say this (and I’ll say it a lot more, so get used to it) – everything we can do to reverse climate change, we should do. LED lighting throughout your house? Heck yeah. Solar power on your roof? Two thumbs up. Walking more and driving less? I’m your cheerleader.
Doing everything in your power to not waste food? For that, I say thank you.
Thank you for honoring the labor of those in the fields. Thank you for valuing the precious fresh water that gives life to your daily sustenance. Thank you for acknowledging the direct linkage between food waste and our impact on our changing climate. Thank you for rejecting the great myth of our time – that you’re just one person who cannot make a difference.
How much food you waste is entirely up to you. Own it. Measure it. Make the act of throwing away that moldy strawberry one that is full of regret and a determination to be better. If it is automatic, it will likely happen again. Make food waste the rare exception, not the norm as you make room in your refrigerator on grocery day.
If you are up for the challenge, here’s what you can expect. You will think about your food differently. You will save water. You will save money. And you will lighten your carbon footprint (which might be bigger than you think, and which you can measure here). So what can we actually do to reduce our food waste (beyond the obvious, of course)? I’ll have some answers next week. Cheers!
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