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What we choose to eat matters. How we choose to eat also matters
By Roberta Attanasio What we choose to eat matters—not only for our health, but also for our planet. The good news is that most foods known to maintain or improve our wellbeing have low environmental impacts. Even more good news—something that for years has been simmering under the surface is now bubbling in open view. It’s the collective awareness of how our food choices and the way we eat influence both society and environment. While there are people that exploit our planet in order to produce food, there are others who connect to our natural world through it. There are people that waste food, and people that find ways to…
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A new report shows the worldwide magnitude of food waste
By Roberta Attanasio The foreword of a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report starts with a poignant observation: “If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Food waste also burdens waste management systems, exacerbates food insecurity, making it a major contributor to the three planetary crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.” The report (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021) was produced by the UNEP in collaboration with the partner organization WRAP, a global NGO based in the UK. It was released on March 4, 2021, and shows that substantial amounts of food…
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Food Waste Harms Climate, Water, Land and Biodiversity
By The Editors The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released a few days ago a report detailing the first study to analyze the impacts of global food wastage from an environmental perspective, looking specifically at its consequences for the climate, water and land use, and biodiversity. Key facts and figures from the report are: The global volume of food wastage is estimated at 1.6 billion tonnes of “primary product equivalents.” Total food wastage for the edible part of this amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes. Food wastage’s carbon footprint is estimated at 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent of GHG released into the atmosphere per year. The total…
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Reducing Food Loss and Waste – A New Working Paper
By The Editors As we have seen in the previous post, this year the theme of World Environment Day (June 5) is ‘Think.Eat.Save’. The theme connects to the “Think.Eat.Save – Reduce Your Foodprint’ campaign. Accordingly, a new working paper has been released yesterday (June 5). The title of this working paper is ‘Reducing Food Loss and Waste”. It was produced by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and draws on research from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The “Think.Eat.Save – Reduce Your Foodprint’ campaign harnesses the expertise of organizations such as FAO, WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), Feeding the…
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World Environment Day 2013: Today, June 5
By The Editors Today we go back to the foodprint: The World Environment Day (WED) 2013 theme is Think.Eat.Save. Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, concluded her WED 2013 message by saying: “From production, transport and storage to sales and consumption, we need to stop food waste at every step of the way. Each of us must rethink our eating habits to have an impact throughout the food chain. This is how we will lay the foundations for greater sustainability, and this is UNESCO’s message on this World Environment Day.” World Environment Day is celebrated every year on June 5 and it’s one of the main vehicles through which the UN…
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Reducing the Foodprint by Eating Misfits
By The Editors In a previous post, The Foodprint: Eyes on Methane, we talked about the enormous amount of wasted food that ends up in the landfills, where it is decomposed by bacteria under anaerobic conditions (i.e., in the absence of oxygen) and becomes a significant source of methane – a potent greenhouse gas. We concluded the post by saying; “How can we decrease the foodprint? Composting, composting, composting — However, composting works well for food waste that has already been generated. What about changing our mindset and finding ways to reduce the amount of food we waste on a daily basis?” In this new post, let’s talk about a possible…
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The Foodprint: Eyes on Methane
By The Editors We all know something about the carbon footprint, a little less about the plastic footprint, and — may be we haven’t heard (yet) about the foodprint. What is the foodprint? It’s all related to methane. Methane is a colorless, odorless gas with a wide distribution in nature. It is the principal component of natural gas. National Geographic calls it the “Good Gas, Bad Gas” and it goes on to say: “Burn natural gas and it warms your house. But let it leak, from fracked wells or the melting Arctic, and it warms the whole planet.” To this, we can add:that, globally, over 60% of total methane emissions come from human activities. Methane…
