The UN estimates that globally, around one-third of food produced for consumption never gets eaten. On a national level, the USDA found that 30-40% of American food gets wasted each year. The US alone wastes around 108 billion pounds of food waste each year, equating to 130 billion meals. Meanwhile, 13.8 million people across America faced food insecurity in 2020. How do we solve this issue?
One way is to reform our food wasting habits.
Only buy what you need. It's as simple as that. Consider planning out your weekly meals and using that as a guide when going out to buy food. This will ensure that you are not buying excess food that doesn't fit with the recipes or meals that you make throughout the week, reducing the amount of waste that you generate.
Shop locally. Support your local economy and small businesses by buying from local grocery stores, farmers' markets, and farms! The Culver City farmers' market is held from 2-7 pm every Tuesday on Main Street.
Compost. Once food can no longer be eaten, composting is the best option as it returns the once available energy from food into nutrients that can be used to grow more food. Read my post on how to compost in Culver City.
Share. If you have food that you no longer want or can use, ask your neighbors, friends, and family if they can use it before throwing it away. Buy Nothing Facebook groups are also a great place to give away free food. There are more people in your community than you think who are in need of food. Also, look into local homeless or women's shelters that accept food donations.
Ditch expiration dates. Expiration dates are largely in place to prevent a food manufacturer from getting sued. Due to this fact, they overestimate the date their expiration dates, so people end up throwing away food before it has actually gone off. Your nose is your best tool, and you can usually tell when food has expired based on its smell.
Garden. By experiencing the process of growing your own produce, you end up appreciating your food on a whole new level. Seeing your food go from a single seed to your plate helps you to value the immense amount of time, effort, and energy that it takes to grow produce, prompting you to think about the true amount of resources that you're throwing away the next time you end up wasting food.
Here's a great video that gives you tips on how to reduce your food waste (keep in mind that some of these take more time and effort than others, do the best that you can with the time that you are given. It's all about small steps!):
Rob Greenfield, a wonderful climate activist, presented a TedTalk on how to end the food waste issue:
Comments