If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide after China and the U.S… from a U.N. Report on Food and Agriculture
To put it simply, that means cars and industries aren’t the only contributors to global warming. You and I are adding more to that problem than most of us realize.
A few weeks ago in Davos, Switzerland, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden addressed the attendees at the Climate Change Conference saying, “I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic . . . and act as if the house was on fire.”
That savvy young woman was also talking to each of us. Because our President foolishly pulled us out of the Paris Climate Accords, change has to begin with you and I for our children’s sake and the future of our planet.
Reducing food waste is the easiest cause of climate change for us to have an impact on as individuals. Do not underestimate the difference each of us can make by changing the way we shop for groceries and limiting the amount of food we throw away.
In Part 1 of this series we quoted an NRDC report that said Americans are wasting 40% of the food they buy. They also said that amounts to $1,800 for the average American family. That’s 4 out of every 10 dollars we spend on food. What else could you do with that money?
All too often confusion over Sell By, Best By, Use By, etc. dates on food packaging results in perfectly safe food being discarded. A University of California online report (https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/longform/how-food-label-confusion-hurting-climate) provides detailed information on those labels, as well as Advanced Tips for cutting down on food waste.
It is to our credit as Americans that some of our cities and states are taking climate change initiatives into their own hands because our government won’t do it for the nation.
At the same time, it behooves all our elected local, regional and national officials to spend far less time campaigning for the next election, and far more time seeking and implementing solutions to the problems that contribute to climate change.
No matter where you live in the world, there are people whose plates are far too often empty. Once again let me ask:
How many people would your garbage can feed?
What can you do to reduce food waste?
Blessings on your efforts to decrease your impact on climate change,
Judy Osgood