The Carbon in our Food
“If food waste were a country by itself, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the United States.”
Are you ready for a punch in the gut? Seriously, I would brace for this one. It’s going to hurt. Here we go, from page 3 of Food Foolish:
“The embodied carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in food waste alone represent 3.3 billion metric tons. That’s all the energy that goes to produce the food we never eat, including fuel for tractors used for planting and harvest, electricity for water pumps in the field, the power for processing and packaging facilities, and more. In total, those emissions are more than twice the emissions of all cars and trucks in the United States. Viewed another way, if food waste were a country by itself, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the United States.”
Russia, Brazil, India, Japan, Germany – all countries that can point a finger at global food waste and say, “Hey, at least we aren’t as bad as that guy!”
So that’s it. I’m not going to throw any more statistics at you this time around. I’m going to just say this (and I’ll say it a lot more, so get used to it) – everything we can do to reverse climate change, we should do. LED lighting throughout your house? Heck yeah. Solar power on your roof? Two thumbs up. Walking more and driving less? I’m your cheerleader.
Doing everything in your power to not waste food? For that, I say thank you.
