3 steps to prevent food waste
Inspired by a short news blip which said that Switzerland had run out of time if it had to live from its own agricultural production, last week, I want to talk with you about food waste.
GRRRRRRR, Food Waste …… it can wind me up completely!
And I am not saying I never ever throw anything away, but I do know it is WAY LESS than most people do.
Some extreme numbers …
… before I break it down to a personal level for you:
🌱 ⅓ of all food in the world produced for human consumption is lost or wasted between the field and our plate
🌱 food waste alone generates about 8-10% of the global greenhouse gas emissions
🌱 if Foodwaste was a country is would be the third largest emitting country, only behind China and the USA
🌱 most recent research estimates that around 931 million tonnes of food waste were generated in 2019
I am baffled by these numbers! How about you?
Let’s try to break it down a bit more and look at the European Union:
🌱 the EU generates around 88 million tonnes of food waste every year
🌱 this equals to 143 billion Euro or 170.000.000 tonnes of CO2
🌱 levels of food waste are similar in high, upper-middle and lower-middle income countries
Still too much to handle? Let’s go even smaller and take Switzerland as an example. Because I live there and because it is not very different from EU countries.
In Switzerland:
🌱 2.8 million tonnes of food are wasted every year
🌱 ⅓ of that happens abroad due to our consumption level
🌱 60% of the total is seen as avoidable
🌱 private households and consumers are the biggest culprits
What does this mean on a real personal level?
🌱 you account for about half of all the food waste in the country
🌱 you are responsible for around 330 kg food wasted/ lost every year
JUST TRY TO IMAGINE 330 KG OF FOOD ….
I honestly can’t think of what that mountain would look like.
So the easiest step with a huge impact on the sustainability of your personal life is reducing your food waste. Of course this is an important module within my GESHMAK Program where we talk about many small steps you can take to realise a big impact on your carbon footprint.
But here are three steps you can start taking today to reduce your food waste immediately!
Buy less prepackaged food as these portions are hardly ever the amount you will really eat
Don’t feel ashamed of buying single units of fruits and vegetables if that corresponds to your consumption pattern. Buy, 1 bell pepper, 1 fennel, 1 apple, 1 pear or 2 bananas and if the prepackaged 1 kilo of cherries is too, go to the market and ask for 250 grams
Make more mixed salads or mixed vegetable dishes to use all kind of little leftovers you have
For more tips about and help with making your life more sustainable I invite you to join my GESHMAK Movement Facebook group today: https://www.facebook.com/groups/geshmakmovement
In there I support you with all sorts of tips, tricks, handouts, cheat sheets, but also give live masterclasses and offer you a platform to ask all your questions.