Grow Your Climate Change Vocabulary: Food Waste

Food waste is one of world’s worst contributors to greenhouse gases, which in turn adds to our global climate crisis. The UN estimates that 1/3 of global food produced is wasted, and in 2019 they declared September 29 as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste.

UN SDG Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) calls us to produce and consume our food in sustainable ways in order to alleviate hunger, poverty, food insecurity, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

When we waste food, we waste all the water, soil, and energy it takes to grow, transport and distribute our food. When food waste ends up in our landfills and decays, it creates methane gas, which is 25 times more powerful a pollutant than carbon dioxide.

Note that the carbon footprint of food waste exceeds that of the entire airline industry; food waste also creates a greenhouse gas footprint bigger than all countries, except China and the U.S.A. (Source: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/carbon-footprint-food-waste-bigger-most-countries)