ME YOU YOU ME WE Though it may feel as if we don’t play that big of a part in this as the farmers will continue to grow and raise crops even if you don’t buy their food, we do have a big role to play. We hold the power, we are the ones who are in need of food, but are we really? Food waste in America is estimated to be 30-40% of the food supply (Food Waste FAQs USDA) with consumers tossing about 20% of what they buy (Your Questions About Food and Climate Change). On a global scale, the estimate is that a third of all food produced goes to waste. That’s about 1.3 billion tons of food (Fight Climate change by preventing food waste). As some foods end up in the landfill and rot, they produce methane, further adding to emissions. It is us who the farmers are working to provide for, it is us who let their food go to waste. It is us who demand and buy food only to have a good portion of it go to waste. But we have power in what we do and don’t do, we can change our habits and learn to not only reduce food waste, but also decrease our individual emissions and environmental impact total. It starts with us first, the farmers second. They are just doing their job, what we demand, and what we “need” of them.
“As the world’s population continues to grow, our challenge should not be how to grow more food, but to feed more people while wasting less of what we already produce” - World Wildlife Foundation
