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The importance of food waste essay
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1.0 Introduction
One of the most serious social issues in the world today is increasing of food waste. It produces various impacts to society and economy. Food waste can be defined as food that uneaten or being discarded by human (EU FUSIONS, 2016). Developed countries such as the United States and Europe, mainly waste the foods at the consumption stage, whereas developing countries like the Philippines and India mostly waste the foods at the producing side (eatfortheearth, 2014). However, food waste is the edible items that purposely discard by human and according to research, up to 30 percent of food will be wasted globally every year (Dahl, Dellaventura, Morabito, Perry and Sinodinos, 2014).
Hence, this report is written for the Ministry
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After production and wastage, the carbon footprint is up to 3.3 Gigatons of CO2 without including for GHG emissions, which may cause a climate change (GreenFacts, 2013). Another example of such situation is that fruits and vegetables contribute extremely high levels usage of water in Asia, Europe, and Latin America (UNEP, 2013). However, most of the vegetables and fruits will be wasted due to lack of awareness of consumers and communication in the supply chain so the water is wasted by no significant (UNEP NEWS CENTRE, 2013). From the example provided above, food waste will indirectly impact the environment without consumer’s …show more content…
In developed countries, citizens will spend a larger portion of salaries and wages against buying food or having food in the restaurant but usually, the food will be wasted (Solid Waste, 2016). Due to the food waste in certain countries, some low-income countries such as Africa, Zimbabwe and Philippines are fighting with chronic hunger because the food cannot be distributed to others (Chrobog and Karim, 2014). It is because when people increase the amount on buying food, may cause an insufficient supply in low-income countries. For instance, insufficient food supply and extreme poverty caused 2.7 million of Filipino to face a malnourished lifestyle while most of them need to experience hunger for a whole day (Save the Children, 2014). If everyone can reduce food waste wisely, it may decrease the number of people facing
As Americans, we waste more food than many countries even consume. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “The average American trashes 10 times as much food as a consumer in South east Asia” (Hsu). That is about equivalent to eating 10 meals to a consumer in South East Asia’s one meal. We throw away our left over food just because we are done ea...
Much of the food is thrown into landfills, where it rots, which has very negative effects on the environment. According to John Oliver, the food left to rot in the landfills releases methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas (Oliver, 2015). Methane is a greenhouse gas, meaning it destroys the ozone layer and contributes to the warming of the earth. By refraining from throwing out so much food, or at least redirecting it to people who need it, food waste would be reduced, and so would its harm on the environment. Not only does the rotting food release greenhouse gases, the resources wasted to deal with the unwanted food are huge. According to Kevin Hall, Juen Guo, Michael Dore, and Carson Chow, “Food waste contributes to excess consumption of freshwater and fossil fuels which, along with methane and CO2 emissions from decomposing food, impacts global climate change” (Hall, Guo, Dore, & Chow, 2009, p. 1). America is essentially using resources like water and fossil fuels, that we could be directing towards a better cause, to dispose of perfectly good food that will then release harmful gases of methane and carbon dioxide. Food waste matters because it is a complete waste of valuable resources and food that is needed by many, while also contributing to the growing problem of climate
Muhammad Yunus, a civil society leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, once said, “Once poverty is gone, we’ll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They’ll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society — how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation and despair.” Hunger can be defined as the physical state of desiring food. Hunger may ultimately lead to malnutrition, where one is unable to eat sufficiently enough to meet basic nutritional needs. According to the World Food Programme (2014), hunger and malnutrition are in fact the number one risk to health worldwide — even greater than the combination of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. There are over 842 million undernourished people who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition worldwide, everyday. That means that one in eight people do not receive enough food to be healthy and lead active lives (World Food Programme, 2014). Fortunately, hunger and malnutrition are easily solvable, though everyone must work together to permanently bring an end to it.
Imagine coming home as a single parent to your two small children. Their eyes are dull, their ribs are highly noticeable under their old shirts and they ask, “Did you bring us home anything to eat?” You can almost feel your heart being ripped apart as their little faces shine with hope, thinking maybe you finally brought some food home. Unfortunately, you have nothing to give them. Across the globe, people are living in situations much like I mentioned. They have leaky roofs, old clothes and little to no food. Children come home and search their cupboards only to find them bare. Then there are the kids who come home to find their cupboards chock full of unhealthy foods such as chips, sweets and processed goods. Some of these impoverished places are known as food deserts. Together, we can feed the hungry and give them the nourishment they need.
A lack of money affects access to food in many ways. First, as these areas are remote, it’s difficult to deliver food with a short shelf life such as fresh produce, meat, or dairy products before their expiration date (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004). With delivery to remote areas taking longer, the shelf life for products is even shorter, which causes buyers to purchase these products more often to make up for the loss (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004). Poverty can also lead to people making unhealthy food choices, since it is the cheaper choice in the short run (Templeton, 2017). Moreover, it is likely that there is not a reliable mode of transportation to go to a grocery store in the impoverished and rural area (White, 2015). In addition, lack of education also negatively influences food choices; it is difficult for residents to make healthy food choices if they do not know the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods (Templeton,
Rossett, Peter. “Preventing hunger: change economic policy.” Nature 479.7374 (2011): 472+. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Each year about 27% of America’s food gets thrown out, with more than 300 pounds of food per person ending up in the waste stream. The disposal cost of such food exceeds one billion dollars in local tax funds annual...
One of the biggest controversies with livestock production is that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that get released into the atmosphere. Its assumed that cars produce most if not all the greenhouse gas emissions however livestock has a big say in air pollution. According to Cassandra Brooks, writer for the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, 18 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions are due to livestock production. This is nearly 20% and can be greatly reduced if people reduced their demand for meat. The Environmental Working Group used a tangible variable for Americans stating “if everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million cars off the road” (Goffman 9). Instead of taking the bus to work, switching your diet around could make just as much of an impact on the environment.
In order for us to maintain our lives, we need to consume food to supply nutrient-needs for our bodies. As the global population increased, the demand for food also increased. Increased population led to mass production of foods. However, even with this mass production, in under-developed countries, people are still undernourished. On other hand, in developed and developing countries, people are overfed and suffering from obesity. In addition, the current methods of industrial farming destroy the environment. These problems raised a question to our global food system. Will it be able to sustain our increasing global population and the earth? With this question in my mind, I decided to investigate the sustainability of our current global food system.
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
I have chosen the topic of food waste and the impact on the environment. I will discuss the ridiculous amount of food that is wasted each year and the staggering amount of waste that could be avoided just by planning ahead, and purchasing from farmer’s markets and avoiding the main stream supermarkets who set such high standards on the aesthetic of produce that tonnes are wasted for no reason other then shape.
Food waste is the biggest space consumer in our landfills, which may seem surprising, but shouldn’t be based on the amount of food that is consumed on a daily basis and the large proportion of food that is wasted. The main problem with the amount of food waste in landfills, is that it produces methane as it decomposes which is detrimental to the atmosphere as a whole, and can have lasting effects. The buildup of all the methane produced results in huge amounts of global warming potential which is extremely detrimental to our environment. Also, because of the fact that so many resources are used in order to grow certain foods, they are all being put to waste when the food that used these resources goes directly to landfills. This applies to water usage, soil richness, and petroleum usage. As far as costs go, food waste affects the economy by about $750 billion a year, which is a massive amount of money that could be going elsewhere. Because we are losing so much money, it is clear that there is a great need for change in the food system, especially in the United
One of the most complex issues in the world today concerns human population. The number of people living off the earth’s resources and stressing its ecosystem has doubled in just forty years. In 1960 there were 3 billion of us; today there are 6 billion. We have no idea what maximum number of people the earth will support. Therefore, the very first question that comes into people’s mind is that are there enough food for all of us in the future? There is no answer for that. Food shortage has become a serious problem among many countries around the world. There are many different reasons why people are starving all over the world. The lack of economic justice and water shortages are just merely two examples out of them all.
Food waste is huge issue these days. It is a huge amount of waste that ends up in landfills and can have lasting effects on the environment. One of major issues of food waste is the greenhouse gases that it produces. Methane gas is the main culprit when it comes to the gases being released. This can absorb infrared radiation and heat up the earth’s atmosphere and cause climate change. Another issue that food waste causes is, water loss due to use for production of fruits and vegetables.
According to Price et al. (1985), estimated values of the total global food loss and waste to around one third of the edible parts of food produced for human consumption, amounting to about 1.3 billion tonnes (1.28×109 long tons; 1.43×109 short tons) per year . In developing countries, like Ethiopia it is estimated that 400-500 calories per day per person are gainful