Too Good to Waste

We've all had food that has found its way to the back our refrigerator, finally getting dumped into the compost or the garbage. But we seldom think about the scale of food waste globally. In a world with about 800 million people living with hunger, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), tells us that we squander about 2.9 trillion pounds each year. That’s enough food around the globe to feed every one of those people living with hunger more than twice over.

Our hunger group at Incarnation Lutheran in Shoreview has been talking a lot about food waste lately. We've been reading about food waste and have some resources to help you kick-start conversations in your own church or among friends and family:

• Food: Too Good to Waste;
• Love Food Hate Waste; and
• Wasted: How America is Losing Up to 40 Percent of its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill. 

Food waste occurs for many reasons, such lack of adequate storage facilities or refrigeration in some countries, or retailers who order, serve and display too much. And we consumers who toss food before it has passed its usability. The effect of food waste on the environment squanders water, fertilizer, pesticides, seeds, fuel and the land on which the food is grown. “If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world, after China and the U.S.” (Nat. Geo, 3/2016 p.36)

In 2015, the United Nations and the United States pledged to half food waste by 2050. If that goal is met, there would be food for at least 1 billion people. We have much to do. A good place to begin is by checking your own refrigerator and thinking about your buying habits.

Vernita Kennen

Incarnation Lutheran, Shoreview

(Photo via Unsplash)