Читать книгу Zero Waste Cooking For Dummies - Rosanne Rust - Страница 40

While food spoilage is one of the biggest reasons people throw away food, many Americans throw away perfectly good, safe, and consumable food. In addition, the water and energy used to produce the food is also wasted. Food that sits in landfills results in the production of nitrogen pollution, and it emits methane, a greenhouse gas. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), food waste accounts for about 6 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, preventing food waste can be one potential solution to slow global warming.

There’s a lot of conflicting data regarding the role agriculture plays specifically in GHG emissions. While agriculture plays a role, according to the EPA it accounts for a small portion of all emissions compared to the transportation industry (see Figure 2-1). Planes, rockets, trains, buses, and automobiles generate the largest amount of GHG emissions, along with the energy and industry sectors, accounting for about 80 percent of all emissions (see Figure 2-2). Also, carbon dioxide accounts for 80 percent of GHG emissions, with methane accounting for 10 percent.

According to a report from the Food Waste Alliance, about a third of the world’s food is wasted. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines food waste as “the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers and consumers.” This can include not shelving produce that’s less than desirable in shape, size, or color. Or pitching foods that are beyond the best-by date or are leftover in both restaurant and household kitchens (see Chapter 4 for more on best-by dates).

Courtesy of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

FIGURE 2-1: Sources of U.S. GHG emissions by economic sector in 2019.

While it’s estimated that the world wastes 1.4 billion tons of food, the United States wastes more than any other country. In 2018, the U.S. generated 63 million tons of food waste from commercial, institutional, and residential sectors, according to the EPA’s 2018 Waste Food Report. That also includes food that’s never eaten. Interestingly, it’s estimated that with the increase in takeout, and food eaten at home during the 2020 pandemic, more food was wasted in 2020 and 2021.

Every sector has a role to play in reducing food waste. The goal of this book is to help you understand why it’s important to reduce food waste and what part you can play by changing some of your personal food waste habits.

There’s good and bad news. Over the years, it’s been a challenge to track food waste. In 2018, the EPA revised its food measurement methodology to better capture where excess food goes through the food system. The bad news is that we wasted much more food in recent years compared to 1960 (63 million tons in 2018 compared to 12.2 million tons in 1960). The good news is that only 56 percent of the food waste generated in 2018 went to landfills, compared with 100 percent going to landfills in 1960.

Courtesy of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

FIGURE 2-2: Overview of GHG emissions in 2019.

By 1980, the U.S. began working on diverting food waste from landfills and using it for energy (converting food waste to usable heat, electricity, or other fuel), to feed animals, or for composting. We’ve made progress in waste management, but we still have a way to go to reduce overgeneration of food waste.

Food security is also a global issue. More than 800 million people in the world are hungry. You can find out more about donating food in Chapter 1.