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

Food is an important part of life, heck it’s a necessity, and an important part of culture. Grandma’s special recipe from generations back, farmland that you inherited, that special annual get together buffet. Wherever it is, food is something that can bring people together. If food is able to unite us, we should be able to unite to solve this problem of growing emissions from food production. That does not mean for all of us to go vegan, that does not mean all of us have to stop eating meat, it’s simply educating ourselves and making some effort to reduce our own individual emissions and environmental impact. More importantly, to learn to stop taking food and our planet for granted.

In the end, climate change and what comes with it is something that we will all have to face together, and it is a problem that will have to be solved together as well, no matter how cliché it sounds.

And cut.

“From the clothes we wear, to the food we eat, to how we get around, by thinking through the full effects of daily decisions, individuals and corporations can get a better idea of the best way to reduce our environmental footprint.” - Hank green