Today marks the start of Food Waste Action week. To celebrate, The Daily Difference will dive into the topic for the next several days to understand the impact of food waste on the environment.
Food waste happens throughout the entire system of food production. We aren’t just talking about the food that rots in the refrigerators of homes or restaurants, but also food lost during the production, processing, storage or transportation stages of the food value cycle.
How much food is lost or wasted each year? It is significant at over two billion tons of food.
The impact on the environment is also significant as the food waste/loss translates to approximately 8% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
To put that into perspective, “if food loss were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind China and the US”.
All for food that is never consumed.
Tomorrow we’ll look at a food rescue organization who is making a difference in Australia.