On Your Way to Lunch: Thinking About Food Waste

While abroad last month, a headline I spotted in The Guardian pronounced: “Cutting food waste by 25% ‘could feed the world’.” Per a U. N. report of a couple of years ago, 1.3 billion tons of food go uneaten yearly.

“UK homes lose £700 [over$1K] yearly throwing out edible food” is the sub-headline.

While the U.N. report has been out there for awhile, what has brought the issue to light again is the French government’s decision to mandate that supermarkets distribute unsold food to charities rather than landfills. (Less methane gas, a component of greenhouse gas emissions, is additional positive outcome. More on that below.)

Another is recent estimates of what food production may be required by 2050 to feed a growing human population–60% from 2005 levels! So, preventing food waste looms large in the equation to solve.

But, the challenge isn’t straight line. In some parts of the world, there’s one outsized link in the chain of food waste while in another area the outsized link is a different problem. The bar chart illustrates the chain from production to consumption and the range of challenges in what geographic area.

Not surprising is that efficiencies in wealthier geographic areas leave less waste at all levels of the chain ’til consumption.

In my household, which ranges from 2 to 5, we sometimes shock ourselves at how much food we move from the fridge directly to the compost or waste can (a bolder term than trash). And, how little we leave on our plates doesn’t make us feel any better about it. I’d say we find it embarrassing, particularly as we’ve been trying harder to better manage our estimates of need when at the grocery store. Heh, I just read that going to the grocery store when hungry often leads to over-buying. Now that makes sense!

The article points out that in underdeveloped, poorer countries only 5-16% is thrown away. In developed countries, the range is 30-40%. Translated per person, food waste in the nations of Europe and North America amounts to 95-115 kg (210+ lbs). In the poorer countries of sub-Saharan Africa and south- and southeast Asia, the range is 6-11 kg (less than 25 lbs).

Get this (again from The Guardian): “The environmental impact of food loss and waste is high. The carbon footprint of food produced and not eaten is estimated at 3.3 gigatons of CO2, meaning that if food waste were a country it would rank as the third highest national emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China.”

Another statistic cited is that nearly 30% of available ag land used to grow or farm food winds up as production thrown out.

By no means singling out the Irish rather than any other Western country, the What Do We Waste Most? graphic illustrates what goes down the garbage disposal or into the waste can there (compost bin, maybe?). Imagine that potatoes are the most wasted vegetable? In Ireland? Has the Great Famine of the mid-19th c. been forgotten, or dispatched from grade school history books?

In the U.K. overall, progress has been made over the last decade. There’s been a major campaign to reduce waste, spearheaded by the organization called Wrap, headquartered in Banbury, England. From 2007 through 2011, food waste was decreased by 21%, from 5.3M tons to 4.2M tons. Since about 2001, the recycling or composting of food waste has risen from 14% to 43% among households.

A couple of weeks ago, NPR reported that Denmark may now be leading the reduction of food waste globally. According to the report, Danes discard 104# of food versus Americans at 273# annually. In the U.S., over 1/3 of all food waste is generated by individual consumers while retailers are responsible for 23%.

Just the other day, NPR’s Alison Aubrey reported that the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is calling for a voluntary 50% reduction in food waste by 2030. (I look for food, like meats, discounted due to being near the expiry or use-by date.)

Aubrey also reported on the EPA website Food Recovery Challenge. The Feds will need some more promotional help in what the program calls “endorsers”. BJ’s Wholesale Club, Safeway and Whole Foods are among many listed there, but I’m unsure how aware the general populace is of these government/business initiatives. I’ve not spotted a sign about this in the Safeway or Whole Foods stores where I shop. Another go-to for  us is Giant which isn’t an endorser.

For a related take on food waste? The Society of St. Andrew would have us know: “The United States spends about 1 billion dollars a year just to dispose of food waste. According to the [EPA], food leftovers are the single-largest component of the waste stream by weight in the United States.”

This Just In (for your blogger, anyway)–  A New Way of Preserving Produce…

Several years ago, an Ellicott City, MD, entrepreneur invented and patented FreshPaper, an herb-infused 5×5″ piece of paper. Proximate to fresh fruits and vegetables, it inhibits bacterial and fungal growth, so extends fridge shelf life 2-4x. It’s available at Whole Foods, Bed Bath and Beyond, Ace Hardware and amazon.com. Meanwhile…

let’s