The Environmental Impact of Wasted Food

Food wastage footprint (2013) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (3:15 min.).

Most of us have thrown food out at some point in our lives. Maybe we put more food on our plates than our stomachs could handle. Or maybe we left that milk in the fridge a little too long, and it went bad.

Throwing food away occasionally might not seem like a big deal. But did you know that  one-third of all food produced in the world goes to waste? The video “Food Wastage Footprint” from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations introduces us to the problem of food waste. Let’s explore the problem and the possible solutions in more detail.

What are the problems with food waste?

Think of all the steps involved in getting food to your plate. Food needs to be grown, processed, packaged, transported, marketed and, finally, sold. 

There are many ways that food can go to waste. We’ve already talked about throwing out food on our plate or in our fridge. But food gets wasted long before it gets to us. Some food goes to waste at the production stage. For example, sometimes pests can attack farm crops. Sometimes bad weather can destroy a crop yield, too. Food can also go bad when it is being transported. Finally, grocery stores often throw out food they can’t or don’t sell.

Every time food is wasted, all of the resources that went into each of those steps are wasted, too. For example, think about the plastic that went into packaging thrown-away frozen vegetables. Or, think about all the fumes emitted when fruit is shipped from South America to North America.

There are also enormous environmental costs to wasting food. For example, water is used in every stage of the food production process. People water crops. They give water to animals raised for meat. Packaging and transporting food takes water, too. When you waste food, all of that water also goes to waste. So does the water within the wasted food - think of a juicy apple! This wasted water is equivalent to about 170 trillion litres (or 45 trillion gallons) of water per year. According to the World Health Organization, the minimum amount of water needed per person per day is about 15-20 litres. If even a fraction of wasted water was saved, it could go a long way in providing people with water around the world! Wasting food wastes so much water that, if combined, it could cover all the world’s household water needs.

Did you know?

Currently, about 70 percent of available global freshwater resources are used to irrigate (water) crops and produce food.

Food waste also heavily contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases. Food that is thrown out often goes to landfills. As it rots in the landfill, it produces a greenhouse gas called methane. Greenhouse gases are emitted in the production and transportation of food as well. Cows that are grown as livestock produce methane. Emissions from the vehicles that transport food produce carbon dioxide. Scientists believe that if we stopped throwing away food, we could prevent 11 percent of greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by the food system. 

Finally, let’s not forget the steps it took to produce our food in the first place. For example, to create a farm, you have to clear land. Clearing land can destroy wildlife habitats and, in turn, reduce biodiversity.

How can we solve the food waste problem?

There are lots of things food producers and suppliers can do to reduce the amount of wasted food. Food producers can invest in storage and preservation technology. Food can go bad if it is not stored properly post-harvest. In some places, refrigeration is not always practical. This is especially true in many developing countries. Scientists are researching alternatives to refrigeration in these areas. One option might be to dehydrate the food and store it in moisture-proof storage containers.

 
Supermarkets can reduce the prices of food that might be considered “imperfect” or "ugly". They can pay close attention to “best before” dates on their food. That way, perfectly good food will not be thrown away. Supermarkets can also donate food that isn’t sold.

Did you know?

In 2016, France passed a law saying that supermarkets could no longer throw away unsold food. They had to donate it to food banks instead.

Sometimes, food isn’t considered fit for humans to consume. Instead of throwing all that food away, some of it can be reused as animal feed. Currently, huge amounts of agricultural land are dedicated to growing crops to feed livestock. Clearing land for farming destroys the habitat of local animals and plants, so alternatives are always worth exploring.

Did you know?

Feed it Forward is a community food program in Toronto, Ontario. It includes a pay-what-you can grocery store, where all the food is donated by supermarkets and bakeries that did not sell it fast enough.

But there are also things consumers can do to reduce the amount of food that gets wasted. That means people like you and me! We can store food properly so it doesn’t go bad. We can ask for smaller portions if we eat in restaurants. Finally, we can also help the soil by composting our food waste instead of throwing it away.

Food waste is a huge problem. Let’s do our part to reduce it!