Category: FOOD-WASTE_MN

Globally, we waste about 1.4 billion tons of food annually, and wasting food contributes to 11 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to this 2021 Guide. The United States discards more food than any other country in the world – nearly 40 million tons every year. That’s estimated to be 30 to 40 percent of the entire U.S. food supply. Food insecurity is also a major issue. Before the pandemic, 35 million people across America had food insecurity and that number is expected to rise to as much as 50 million in 2021.

Andrew Zimmern has traveled the world, observing the rich and varied traditions of tribal Africa to the modern Italian kitchen. In his journeys, he has experienced the exotic, the unknown and the desolate. The accomplished culinary expert, James Beard Award winner and social justice advocate is now fighting food waste at home in a partnership with Germany-based supermarket chain ALDI.

Humans throw away about 1.3 billion tons of food a year, or—at the very least—one third of all food in the world. If you loaded that refuse into trucks, they’d wrap bumper-to-bumper around the world seven times. All that waste is detrimental to our planet. In terms of carbon emissions, we toss tomatoes, let the bread go stale, age out our cilantro, and ignore our mustards until we are doing as much damage as every single car and truck on the planet. If food waste were a country, it would be the third-biggest emitter worldwide.

The Department of Agriculture is aiming to improve urban food production by providing $2 million to local governments who host pilot projects focusing on composting and reducing food waste. The money is being made available through USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovation Production to communities who host Community Compost and Food Waste Reduction pilot projects. This program is in its second year and was formalized in the 2018 farm bill.

Every year, anywhere between 30% and 40% of food produced for human consumption is wasted in the United States.1 Sometimes it fails to get harvested or it spoils during transport; other times it does not get sold at the supermarket or perhaps it gets forgotten at the back of someone’s fridge.

Research reveals consumers wasting more food as a result of the pandemic – AIB

• ● Dublin and Munster most concerned about food wastage
• ● AIB to further support FoodCloud in €1.5 million partnership for the next three years
• ● 97% say they are feeling the effects of climate change on their day to day lives, with food waste a contributor to climate change.

New research by Amárach to mark AIB extending its partnership with FoodCloud shows that over a third of the public feel they waste more food since Covid-19 restrictions began.

According to a draft of the IPCC special report, between 25 and 30 percent of all food produced is wasted or thrown away each year. Since 1970, this proportion is reported to have increased by about 40 per cent. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), this loss costs almost one trillion dollars (890 billion euros) every year.

And the climate suffers too: Waste contributes around eight percent to the already poor CO2 balance. This is also due to the increasing use of monocultures such as soy, which contribute significantly to the destruction of forests. Every year, tropical forests the size of Sri Lanka disappear – and with them the possibility to absorb large amounts of climate-damaging carbon dioxide.

Some of the climate impacts of a grocery store trip are obvious, like the fuel it takes to get there and the electricity that keeps its lights glowing, conveyor belts moving and scanners beeping. But then there are the invisible gases seeping out into the atmosphere when you reach for your ice cream of choice.
 
 

Long Island is facing a crisis. Within the next four years we will run out of space to put the one million tons of garbage Long Islanders produce annually. If we don’t act now to find a viable solution, more trucks will be on the roads, increasing traffic and air pollution to move garbage from one place to another. Rush hour delays will continue to grow, negatively impacting our economy and costing you precious time. That’s why Winters Bros., the area’s leading waste management firm, has embarked on a project to help Long Island solve these problems and build for the future.