December 23, 2024
Food waste is a serious issue that demands our immediate attention. What we eat and our food habits directly affect the climate and our earth. Food that is produced and not eaten ends up in landfills which creates methane, but we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing food waste and loss. Food waste can be caused by several reasons including overbuying, spoilage, poor planning, confusion over food labels, incorrect storage, or cooking more food than we need and throwing out leftovers. Food loss can happen at all stages of production in the supply chain such as transportation, processing, over-ordering, and discarding imperfect produce.
“According to the UN Environment Programme, about one-third of food produced globally for human consumption, each year is lost or wasted. That is approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of edible food.”, as explained by Made in CA.
In Canada, the “yearly food waste is equivalent to 9.8 million tonnes of CO2”, 45% of which is from fruits and vegetables. Despite this, “4 million Canadians, including 1.2 million children live in food insecure households.”
In the United States, “food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply.” Yet in 2023, “13.8 million children lived in households that experienced food insecurity.”
Although Canada, the United States, and countries around the world have many long term goals to cut food waste, we can help combat food waste immediately by switching to a sustainable plant-based diet and away from animal agriculture. This would reduce global agriculture land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares.
Compassion In World Farming UK, an organization that campaigns peacefully to end factory farming while creating sustainable food systems, examines the issue of food waste and offers suggestions.
“…globally 25% of calories are lost or wasted post-harvest or at the retail or consumer level. In addition, globally 36% of cereals are used as animal feed. However, as we have seen, at most only 17-30% of these calories are returned for human consumption as meat or milk. The effect of this is that 70-83% of the 36% of the world’s crop calories that are used as animal feed are wasted; they produce no food for humans. This means that 25-30% (70-83% of 36%) of the world’s crop calories are being wasted by being fed to animals.”
As the Plant Based Treaty’s Safe and Just report states, reducing food waste is part of a much bigger picture related to food justice. “To address food justice we need to implement food distribution and subsidy systems ensuring healthy food access, especially targeting marginalised communities. Community gardens, providing families with healthy food, redistributing food, and reducing food waste, should be prioritised by local and regional governments.”
Part of the solution is transitioning away from harmful animal agriculture and moving towards a more sustainable plant-based food system. In addition to this, here are creative ways to keep food waste scraps out of landfills and combat the problem at home.
1. Compost the Scraps
A compost heap is perfect for making food scraps into nutritious soil for your garden. (Photo: Edward Howell / Unsplash)
2. Soups, Sauces and Drinks
3. Create New Meals
Easy vegan muffins, perfect for using up old bananas (Photo and recipe: Nora Cooks)
4. Snacks for Companion Animals
Companion animals can benefit from leftover food scraps too! Speak to a vet or research what foods are safe to avoid feeding them anything toxic. Some dogs love sweet potato peels as a snack that can be baked in the oven until crispy. Other scrappy ideas include kale, broccoli, carrot, and cabbage for additions to their dog food after being steamed or dehydrated. Or try making homemade applesauce for dogs by steaming apple scraps with water, blending it together to form a puree, and freezing servings in ice cube trays for the perfect healthy treat. After all, vegan dogs love their fruits and veggies too.
5. Cleaning Supplies And Air Fresheners
Lemon peels can be added to vinegar to make a zero-waste and non-toxic cleaner for your home (Photo: Freepik / 8Photo)
Don’t forget to sign the Plant Based Treaty and check out the campaign hub!
Written by Miriam Porter
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