But if we were to reduce our food waste by just 20%, we could avoid 18 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The Environmental Protection Agency's Report on Environmental Pollution and Disease indicates that the following common diseases and conditions may be strongly linked to environmental exposure: asthma, autism, breast and other cancers, lung disease, Parkinson's disease, and conditions associated with reproductive health. Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local, Food production is responsible for one-quarter of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, different types of plants need different amounts of water to grow. Science, 360(6392), 987-992. Reducing foods environmental impacts through producers and consumers. The largest chunk of food-related greenhouse gases comes from agriculture and land use. This explains why some individuals have a fairly low risk of developing a disease as a result of an environmental exposure, while others are much more vulnerable. Air emissions from livestock operations make up 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The high content of nitrogen and other nutrients in manure runoff leads to dead zones in downstream waterways. They provide essential vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre, and tend to have a lower environmental impact than animal-based foods. Davis, D. et al. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 20. There are two ways in which we waste land. "We were able to repurpose, for example, snack trays and movie theater popcorn and deliver them to consumers, eliminating unnecessary waste. nitrous oxide from fertilizers used for crop production. Most packaging for consumer goods, takeout containers, and even shopping bags are made of nonbiodegradable materials that make their way into the sea or other bodies of water, causing irreversible water pollution. Steps need to be taken to ensure that food waste from oversupplying should be redistributed and diverted to people who need it the most. Reduce refined or non-whole grain products. 18 January 2019 Getty Images Ooh, look at that burger. But in most high-income countries, shifting to more plant-based foods promotes better health and significantly lowers your environmental impact compared to the average meat-based diet. Bigleow says that nearly half of the world's coral reefs today have already disappeared. Here are three charts showing the carbon footprint of different food products. Food Shopping and Storing Food Shopping & Storing The Complex Ways Our Food System Impacts the Environmentand How You Can Help Growing food and raising animals affect the earth, air, land, and water in tangible ways. When we waste food, we also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport, and package it. The carbon footprint of foods: are differences explained by the impacts of methane? When you throw away food, youre also wasting the energy, land,water, andfertilizer that was used to produce, package, and transport it. At times, it may even leave you wondering: Do my actions alone really have a significant effect on the environment? "Our agriculture system is destructivefor the earth and human health. The intensity of grazing on rangelands can vary a lot. Additionally, taking into account global food transportation, large amounts of oil, diesel and other fossil fuels are consumed as well. When we look at what we eat and how we grow it, we find extensive evidence for damage both to our food (from pollution and soil depletion) and to our environment (from the toxicity of growing foods industrially). There is no better carbon-capture technology on the planet than photosynthesis," he notes. When we throw away food, we also throw away the precious resources that went into producing this food. As a result of farming, excess runoff from the agriculture industry can make its way into freshwater lakes or rivers that flow into the ocean. According to the USDA, agriculture accounts for 80 percent of the nation's consumption of water. . . Agriculture plays a significant role in the water resources available in the world. Pesticides and herbicides are environmental toxins, known as xenobiotics. When we compare the carbon footprint of different types of foods, a clear hierarchy emerges. that food waste ends up wasting a quarter of our water supply in the form of uneaten food. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) established. Nonetheless, the lowest-carbon beef and lamb still have a higher carbon footprint than most plant-based foods. They identified patterns in food waste on a global level. Beef typically has the largest emissions; followed by lamb; pork; chicken; then eggs and fish. This topic page can be cited as: All visualizations, data, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. It accounts for 10%-30% of a household's carbon footprint, which is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions we cause directly and indirectly. Food waste accounts, for one-third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and generates 8% of greenhouse gases annually. Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. According to Andrew Walmsley, Congressional relations director at the American Farm Bureau Federation, "methane digesters not only help better manage the nutrients coming out of our animals, but can also create renewable energy, renewable natural gas, and renewable electricity." What you can do: To help track the average American's daily water footprint, GRACE Communications Foundation (GRACE), a non-profit dedicated to creating a more sustainable food system, created the Water Footprint Calculator, which helps you track water consumption based on your household usage. Looking at the production process as a chain framework can help identify where the issues are. You might also like: 20 Shocking Facts About Food Waste. (2010) found that by 2000, 55% of Earths ice-free (not simply habitable) land had been converted into cropland, pasture, and urban areas. Eat local is a common recommendation to reduce the carbon footprint of your diet. At the same time, reducing food waste is key. Consumers and suppliers lower down the production chain need to take action and education. Read more blogs on the topic of food loss and waste. Cook foods in as little water and for as short a period of time as possible to preserve all water soluble vitamins (Bs and C). "This has led to coral bleaching, more toxic algae blooms, and disruptions to the marine food web." Food such as fruit and vegetables are water-laden, and require a huge amount of water to grow. The Positive Impact of Organic Foods March 17, 2021 By Lauren Mullen What does organic mean? . What you eat is much more important than how far that food has travelled or how much packaging it has. When you consider the long-term effects of climate changeor even the immediate challenges we're already facingthe topic might feel daunting. This is probably due to a combination of factors, including the depletion of nutrients in the soil through monoculture and the use of fertilizers, which simplify the biochemistry of the soil. At later stages of the chain, also known as the downstream stage, food is successfully processed and sent to consumers and commerce markets but it is wasted for other reasons unrelated to whether it is fit for human consumption or not. The beef industry, for example, requires an astounding 2,000 gallons of water per pound of beef to produce. Animals also require a large amount of water for both their growth and their feed. It contributes towards 20% of the global greenhouse gas emissions released. The way we produce food destroys the soil, mows down rainforests, depletes our freshwater resources, and drives massive loss of biodiversity in our ecosystem," says According to Mark Hyman, MD, New York Times best-selling author of Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? By doing so, we are gradually degrading our natural land in a way that prohibits anything natural from growing on it. is reportedly outpacing population growth, yet at the same time, places like Europe are discarding 40-60% of fish because they do not meet supermarket quality standards. A report published in July 2021 by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organisation and other UN agencies shows that one-tenth of the global population - as many as 811 million people - were undernourished in 2020, up 118 million from 2019. Crop production accounts for around a quarter of food emissions. Several factors, including pesticides and global warming, have caused damaging effects on soil health and pollinator populations, leaving the food system in a vulnerable state. This gives the world just 18% of global calories, and 37% of its protein. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Water is needed for all stages of the food production process, as well as in all types of food produced. Preventing food waste has been highlighted in the UN Environment Programme GEO-6 report as one of three important actions that need to be taken in transforming our food system. The land we use for producing the food, and the land we used for dumping the food. Tossing away uneaten food may appear like meagre damage to the planet when compared to other issues, but the haunting reality is that it is just as harmful. Three-quarters of this agricultural land is used for livestock, which is pasture plus cropland used for the production of animal feed. Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses. When food is discarded, all inputs used in producing, processing, transporting, preparing, and storing discarded food are also wasted. But once there, they cause issues. (2007). Composts at every Imperfect Foods' fulfillment centers helped "divert over 75 percent of our waste from landfills" in 2020, Rotman says. World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use. If food waste were a country, its greenhouse gas emissions would be the third largest in the world, following the US and China. There are a number of ways in which food waste can affect the environment. Poore & Nemecek (2018) report that of the 9.4 billion tonne-kilometers of global food transport, air-freight accounted for only 15 million. Very little food is air-freighted; it accounts for only 0.16% of food miles.12 For the few products which are transported by air, the emissions can be very high: flying emits 50 times more CO2eq than boat per tonne kilometer. Berkely, CA: Conari Press. "Regeneratively-raised animals are a net benefit to climate change by restoring the largest carbon sink on the planet, far greater than all the rainforests, a sink that can store three times as much carbon as exists today in the atmosphere: soil. Locally-produced beef will have a much larger footprint than peas, regardless of whether its shipped across continents or not. Waste Food = Waste Water It's possible to grow food for free if you know how but what's not free is the water supply that you use to water your food. Consumer re-education has to be broadened, investment into waste treatment infrastructure needs to be made, food collection methods in line with redistribution have to be discussed, waste diversion systems need to be created for the commercial and retail sector, and further research as to the best ways to recycle and reuse the food waste that cannot be consumed have to be carried out. Jose Graziano da Silva, director-general of the FAO, gave suggestions on ways in which we could tackle this global problem. As the visualization shows, this would take us well beyond the carbon budget for 1.5C we would emit two to three times more than this budget.
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