One of the biggest factors in food waste is overproduction, particularly of some of the world’s intensively grown crops/products, such as corn, wheat, chicken and pork. Why does this matter? Food production contributes more than 20% of the planet’s carbon emissions.
However, convincing agribusiness to reduce their production is a pretty tall order but there are smaller-scale and potentially easier to implement solutions further down the ‘food chain’ .
One idea is from Leanpath. Founded in 2004, Leanpath is a Certified B Corp working to help commercial kitchens dramatically reduce their food waste before they start prepping and cooking meals. If you are involved with commercial food services, check out the abundance of their downloadable resources.
Reducing food waste is important work to help the planet. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggests that “if food waste were a country, it would be the 3rd-largest contributor of carbon emissions, after the US and China”. (Earth.org)
For our residential kitchens, an easy step to reducing food waste is advance planning to ensure that we purchase only what is needed.