Dream Green Blog

Why is food waste a problem?

Food waste is a serious problem that affects the environment and people. To realize the issue, just think of the resources needed to put food on your table; growing food consumes fossil fuels, water, labor, and financial capital. For example, 170 trillion liters of water were wasted per year to grow the juicy apple, and the minimum amount of water needed per person per year is about 7300 liters so we are wasting water equivalent to the need of 23.3 billion people yearly to grow apple (Let’s Talk Science, 2019, para.6). Also, producing food causes the greenhouse gases emissions plus the methane that emitted when food ended up in the landfill; 11% of greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the food system (Let’s Talk Science, 2019). 

I do care a lot about the environment but when it comes to food waste, my major concern is people. Every time we waste food, we are responsible in a way or another for the death of a child. Every time you want to dump food just remember the following picture.   

Photo via REUTERS/Mohammed al-Sayagh                                     

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation FAO report, the number of undernourished people which is 690 million in 2018 is increasing and it is expected to exceed 840 million by 2030 if no actions were taken as shown in figure 1(FAO, 2020, para.Box1) .

Figure 1: source(FAO, 2020)

Furthermore, World Food Program USA released that “Approximately $1 trillion of food is lost or wasted every year — accounting for roughly one-third of the world’s food. According to the FAO, reversing this trend would preserve enough food to feed 2 billion people. That’s more than twice the number of undernourished people across the globe.” (WFP, 2020, para.6,1).

How can people’s interest for food waste be increased?

It is not an easy situation but the good news is that this problem is avoidable. First, people should know about the problem and its impact, then, they would act to be better consumers. Finally, these people would like to spread awareness about the problem and encourage everyone to deal with food as a limited source. In a research conducted in 2017 by the National Zero Waste Council, 63% of the food Canadians throw away could have been eaten and an average Canadian family wastes 140 kilograms of food per year at an estimated cost of $1,100 per year which means more the $17 billion for Canada (Love Food Hate Waste Canada, 2021, para.3). Grocery stores and supermarkets can put the ugly produce on the shelves and reduce the price; also, supermarkets can keep an eye on the dates and save the landfill a lot of editable food. Supermarkets can donate unsold food and do well for the community and environment. Countries can follow the example of France by passing a law in 2016 saying that supermarkets have to donate the unsold food instead of throwing it away (Let’s Talk Science, 2019).

What you can do to reduce food waste?

1. Shop Smart and avoid buying more than what you actually need. There are many grocery shopping list apps available now that help to create a customized shopping list to save money and time and prevent overbuying such as AnyList (Picard, 2020).
2. Store food correctly and keep your fridge organized. One of the most useful hacks is making an “Eat Me First” Box for About-to-Expire Foods and placed it on the upper shelf (Simplify Self Storage, 2018). Here is a list from Foodsafety.gov to see the suitable temperature and estimated lifetime

https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/cold-food-storage-charts . (FoodSafety.gov, n.d.).

• Buy the ugly produce: for example, bananas with dark spots and overripe strawberries are perfect for a smoothie. Ugly apples are great for apple pies ….and so on.
• Be creative and create new recipes from leftovers. Allrecipes website has more than 950 trusted recipes for everyday leftovers complete with ratings, reviews and cooking tips (Allrecipes, n.d.), so you have recipes to use your leftovers for almost 3 years, enjoy your meals.
• Donate: Sharing is caring; especially if it is food…it’s caring about people and environment.

What is my personal action?

I compost insistently and gather fruit peelings and scraps from the stems, and put them in the compost bin. I clean my fridge weekly and I organize food in it for feasible access to all spots. I don’t have an accurate measurement for my waste but I can tell that these steps reduced my food waste from the size of my garbage bag. I like to use the grandmas’ ways in preserving food, for example, making pickles from extra cucumber by adding one teaspoon salt for each cup of water, half cup of vinegar, and one teaspoon of sugar for 2 kilograms of cucumbers. I downloaded the AnyList app to shop smart and reduced my grocery bill by about 15%. At last not least, I contacted my local supermarket asking him to reduce the food waste in his supermarket.

It’s your turn….

Join me and meet your local supermarket owner to share the terrifying numbers about food waste with him. Make sure to provide him with a list of local charities to donate food to. Download the app and save money and food. Share the information and numbers of the food waste problem on your social media accounts with the hashtag #Food_Waste. 

References

Allrecipes, (n.d.). Everyday Leftovers Recipes. Retrieved https://www.allrecipes.com/recipes/14503/everyday-cooking/everyday-leftovers

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation. (2020). Food Security and Nutrition Around the World In 2020. Retrieved http://www.fao.org/3/ca9692en/online/ca9692en.html#chapter-1_1

Love Food Hate Waste. (2021, February 23). Food waste in the home. Retrieved Feb 02, 2021, from https://lovefoodhatewaste.ca/about/food-waste/

FoodSafety.gov. (n.d.). Cold Food Storage Chart. Retrieved https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/cold-food-storage-charts

Let’s Talk Science. (2019, Jul 23). The Environmental Impact of Wasted Food. https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/stem-in-context/environmental-impact-wasted-food

Picard, C. (2020). 10 Best Grocery Shopping List Apps, According to Nutrition and Tech Experts. GH. Retrieved https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/g26255008/best-grocery-shopping-list-apps/

Sayaghi, M. (2019, May 31). Yemen death toll could hit 233,000 by 2020. The Arab American News. https://www.arabamericannews.com/2019/05/31/yemen-death-toll-could-hit-233000-by-2020/

Simplify Self Storage. (2018). How to Organize Your Refrigerator in 12 Simple Steps. Retrieved https://www.simplyss.com/blog/how-to-organize-your-refrigerator-in-12-simple-steps/?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=caa26acc7a345fbab37cb7329f36979ea49974be-1614832158-0 ATkV9A86zgrdBg8nc26RVHpDq51cJ5kBm4XM7mvd4NjhEFevtbY3cKhECx8Bs01B0gGyghGWc1q4zsYdjeZCqhqrW8ZVBTSRcfCQkesWSFmRmfSvGOEeqYQbxyGpiZx4ns-ZBvxLtNzxih7YJlgcG7eLqOrCioQ3UbXvIHST41cHcDH152n02ohyYZLNXi_NQmJm9q3t7U9_03bo_Fm6_0c3Ipuj2-EsufDjKGMCqgBU67XwQO2-qWUyXt4Jfwvpr-iLY4pB6fRCTdD6hTqxXB1GFwOblyiH4zgJf4A2KmOwY3Kpd-pWOzt37lk01mA-H5qOu6elmGJqa4rTxmBx-2GTiFxoZBnQxu1rAfd2kNuGWXzUkKZWxAogHQM4Xd9MMwLW1_ZlydiXMjLSGSOK0rLVuxWfqozml5mGwOx-TM1CAFQrfY08O41ciQGitGSjiQKT8l5DcIgTQqY2fPk7CzG-jO_wVE_xyBIltY5YKFr6K-MRHkLLW96DP-durCetBXUoE0l7wioYpqDpHFrykxKriVEqri85F6i8WTdNSkB421193LchyY9F9eZkGwG1tDA6et_JDhmDfX9_Kty_nHbMl_fU6xvlF83d8wWGXvjRH6uO3oVb5ubC6Ffnl1UVg-bRUR8tQH8KzAEmK24B8W5-6hzdT1Fez-j9rE1XRMGw

World Food Program USA. (2020, October 1). 8 Facts to Know About Food Waste and Hunger.  https://www.wfpusa.org/articles/8-facts-to-know-about-food-waste-and-hunger/