Food for Thought

By Ashley V.

We are so lucky to live in Wisconsin, a state with a strong backbone in farming and food production, not only in dairy but also in corn, snap beans, carrots, green peas, cranberries, ginseng, dry whey, and potatoes.¹ But did you know that roughly 1/3 of the world’s food is never eaten?² Growing, distributing, and selling food is not an easy task and at every stage there is food that goes to waste. Whether due to bad weather, processing problems, overproduction, overbuying, poor planning and confusion over labels, these problems contribute to our massive amounts of food waste.³ At each stage of food production there is always some loss of food but the real kicker is that the most food that is wasted comes from our very own homes. “In the US, an average person wastes 238 pounds of food per year (21 percent of the food they buy), costing them $1,800 per year.”³ That is like walking out of the store with 5 grocery bags, dropping one in the parking lot and not bothering to pick it back up. This creates a shocking amount of waste and where there is waste there are opportunities for sustainability.

Think about it…when was the last time you threw out food because you couldn’t eat it all, or it went bad? Maybe you hosted a party, and you couldn’t eat all the leftovers, so they had to be thrown away? Perhaps you went to a restaurant, and the portion was so big that you could not eat it all. Maybe you brought those leftovers home, and they sat in your fridge for a week before you finally threw them out. Once that food is in a garbage bag, where does it go? It’s out of sight, so does that mean we don’t have to think about it anymore? NO. That food goes to a landfill. 21% of our landfills are composed solely of food waste.⁴ The FDA even states that wasted food is the largest category of material sent to landfills.⁵

“In 2019, an enormous 35% of all food in the United States went unsold or uneaten. That’s $408 billion worth of food – roughly 2% of U.S. GDP – with a greenhouse gas footprint equivalent to 4% of total U.S. GHG emissions”
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So what is the big deal? Food will break down over time right? Not in a landfill. When organic material like foodscapes, yard clippings, leaves, etc. go to a landfill, they become buried where they decompose without oxygen. Without oxygen, these organic materials will break down and create methane, a greenhouse gas that is 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming our atmosphere.⁶ So when you throw away food, it is warming our atmosphere, exacerbating climate change. Think about that next time you are about to throw food away.

But how is it fair that we send so much food to the landfill when 50 million people struggled with hunger in America in 2020?⁴ We need to develop better systems to make sure that the food that is grown actually gets eaten and feeds as many people as possible while eliminating food waste and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Food waste reduction is ranked as the 3rd most important climate solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (out of 100).
Project Drawdown

The Good News

Reducing food waste is something we can quickly fix! This does not require any monetary investment or drastic change to your lifestyle. As far as climate solutions go, this is one of the easiest! Here is a list of things to consider when reducing food waste:

Meal Planning – Before you go grocery shopping, take a good look at your cupboards and refrigerator. Is there anything that is going to go bad soon? If so, what other grocery items do you need to prepare that food? Plan out your meals for the week so that you can manage your food wisely and eliminate waste.
Use your Freezer – If you cannot eat it fast enough, freeze it. Most items can easily be frozen and thawed at a later date. My husband and I will buy several loaves of bread at the store, freeze them and only take out one loaf when we need it. I also love to freeze fruits and veggies for later use since I can never eat them all before they go bad.
Likable Leftovers – In my house, we make large meals and eat them for several days until they are gone. My husband and I have no problem with leftovers, so we rarely have any food waste. However, I know this is not always the case. If you are not a fan of leftovers, try to cook meals to the appropriate size so there are no leftovers. If you are going out to eat, maybe opt to share a meal or order something smaller, so there are no leftovers. Plan accordingly so that you can eliminate as much food waste as possible.
Compost – Compost what you cannot eat. Food scraps (not meat & dairy), fruit peels, vegetable peels, etc., can all be composted. These scrapes break down, and their nutrients can be turned into soil to help grow more food in the future. We will talk more in-depth on composting in a later blog article but feel free to do some research in the meantime.

These strategies to reduce food waste help our farmers, the planet, and your wallet! This will save you money, conserve energy and resources, reduce methane emissions, and help our communities.⁷ As a state that works very hard to produce food, let’s lead by example and reduce food waste wherever we can. Let’s make sure that food from our farms gets to our forks.

Actionable Tip:

Try any of the tips suggested here to reduce your food waste. Why not try all of them? These are simple adjustments we can make that have a big impact.

References:

1 – State of Wisconsin – Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection

2 – Project Drawdown – Reduced Food Waste

3 – FoodPrint

4 – Feeding America

5 – Food Loss and Waste

6 – Natural Resources Defense Council – Food Waste

7 – Environmental Protection Agency – Reducing Food Waste At Home

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