Every year, one trillion U.S. dollars’ worth of food is thrown out, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The world produces 2640 calories worth of food per person per day—more than enough to feed the entire human population. Meanwhile, over 800 million people are malnourished worldwide.
World hunger has been brought to the attention of world leaders, causing new laws and regulations to be put in place. Ending hunger is second on the list of 17 goals to which world leaders have committed at the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Summit last month.
Because most scrapped food is not composted, it poses a strain on the environment. Edible material makes up 21 percent of landfills and produces methane and 3.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.
To combat scaped foods, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency announced the nation’s first-ever national food waste reduction goal in September, calling for a 50 percent reduction in food waste by 2030. As part of the effort, the federal government will lead a new partnership with charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, the private sector, and local, state, and tribal governments to reduce food loss and waste in order to improve overall food security and conserve our nation’s natural resources.
Efforts to decrease food waste are not just national. Last May, France passed a law forcing its large supermarkets to donate their leftover food to charities and farms in an effort to decrease the 7.1 million metric tons of food wasted in France annually. Before unsold food reaches its expiration date, supermarkets must donate edible food to those who cannot afford it. Inedible food is to be given to farms as animal feed or compost.
The French legislation will also enforce education on food wastage in schools and businesses. In wealthy countries where consumers are accustomed to buying unblemished produce, fruits and vegetables that look irregular or are discoloured but still edible are thrown out without being sold. Moreover, supermarkets have been discarding food around their “best by” or “sell by” dates before the food has spoiled. A lot of perfectly good food is thrown away because it is thought to be less desirable.
Several food pantries and organizations in and around the Ithaca community have used this French model to reduce food waste by distributing unconsumed food to those in need of it. Approximately 30 of these organizations are connected to the Friendship Donations Network (FDN), a program that has helped collect food from donors such as farms, supermarkets, and Cornell University.
The FDN redistributes about 600,000 pounds of food each year. Along with helping to avoid wasting food, these programs have aimed to educate the population about how food wastage is harmful to health, economy, and environment. This summer, FDN worked tirelessly with the Farmer’s Market to save, according to FDN volunteer Celia Clement, “really good produce, fresh lettuce heads, beautiful cherry tomatoes.”
Meanwhile, some claim that only forcing supermarkets to donate unused food may not be a very effective solution to the problem of food scrapping. Out of the yearly 1.3 billion tons of wasted food worldwide, distributors waste only about 20 percent. Consumers throw out about 60 percent of wasted food. But any social-minded citizen—Ithacan, French, or global—should attempt to reduce food waste for the benefit of the world. As Owen Zhang, FDN dock volunteer and Tattler alum, put it: “Food justice is often overlooked when people think about social justice.”