A Feb 27, 2015, article “The True Cost of Food Waste” published in the Huffington Post explores the relationship between food waste and its relationship to environmental issues. One third of all food is wasted! Think of all the resources that went to produce that food. I know another new thing (#1NewThingForWater) the Water Rocks! team can do for water in 2015 is teach youth about the relationship between food waste and water quality/soil health. Wasting food is something we all do and so it offers a huge opportunity for change!
Here is a summary of the article by Meridian Institute: In this opinion piece, Dan Glickman, former Agriculture Secretary and a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, writes that the world wastes an astonishing amount of food. Given the economic costs of food waste, Glickman says, and the fact that nearly a billion people don’t have enough to eat, it is time to make reducing food waste a major priority. In wealthier nations, food gets wasted for cosmetic reasons or because we purchase too much; in poorer countries, it’s due to poor infrastructure. In countries like the U.S. and Europe, says Glickman, providing more information on when food will spoil could help prevent food waste. Another dent could be made by investing in how produce, fish, meats and dairy products are collected and stored, and by incentivizing consumers to be aware of the importance of only purchasing what they will eat. Developing countries need places to store food, as well as refrigeration equipment to transport and sell it. Glickman concludes: “Reducing food waste will pay off,” by both saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “Perhaps more importantly, it will make it much more likely that we will be able to produce enough nutritious food for everyone on the planet. That fact in and of itself should give us a reason to clean our plates.” To read entire article go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-glickman/the-true-cost-of-food-was_b_6769352.html.