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WHAT HAPPENS TO THE FOOD WE THROW AWAY? Since the prehistoric age, people have been
have to pass for plastic items to decompose. Have
collecting food from the wild, hunting, and making
you ever thought of food that is being wasted?
their own meals and beverages. From the stone
Wasted food is an organic substance that gets
age menu, with roasting over fire and fishing, the
decomposed under the action of microorganisms.
human race developed, as well as its diet and
For that process to be accomplished, oxygen is
eating habits.
needed.
Once upon a time, someone came up with an
Now, take a guess, is there enough oxygen on
idea to start cultivating the land and raising
landfills? No!
NEW SECTION
Sonja Borota Local Group Novi Sad
animals that made drastic changes in history. From a very simple diet, we ‘evolved’ to having
Landfills are not just the layers of trash. Besides
a diverse nutrition and reliable food industry,
organic substances, they consist of a huge amount
agrochemicals, fast food, genetically modified
of plastics and metal that are not biodegradable.
organisms (GMO), and synthetic ingredients.
Those layers of trash are being compacted, which leads to a non-existing oxygen inflow needed for
Somehow, we ended up exploiting all our goods,
degradation.
and gambling our health and our future for the sake of fish sticks and chocolate muffins.
What do we have as a result? Partially decomposed waste and methane (highly flammable gas that
Wasting food and climate change
causes fire on landfills, contributing to global warming and climate change).
Food industry definitely represents one of the main causes of climate change, as it affects raising
Then, why do we throw food away?
the level of greenhouse gasses and deforestation a lot, and brings other negative consequences to
There are several reasons why food is being thrown
the human race and the environment.
away. In many poor, less privileged countries, almost 40% of food that is being produced gets
“In the EU, around 88 million tonnes of food
discarded because of the bad infrastructure and
waste are generated annually with associated
storage systems. In industrialised countries, the
costs estimated at 143 billion euros.” (FUSIONS)
reason hides behind bad habits of the population.
All the processes within this industry, including
“In the EU, an estimated 20% of the total food
production, processing, packing, and delivering
produced is lost or wasted, while 33 million
(transportation) of food, adds up to the CO2
people cannot afford a quality meal every
emission and global warming.
second day.” (European Commission)
Except that, a lot of that food ends up in landfills
53% of the total food that is actively thrown away
releasing methane, that causes more harm than
comes from the households. As food became more
CO2 does.
accessible and affordable, it led us to excessive and compulsive shopping. Also, a lot of fruits and
How does the food we throw away affect climate
vegetables never get to customers because it
change?
doesn’t satisfy aesthetic conditions.
We always talk about plastics and how several years
ESTIEM Magazine | 59th issue - Innovation in a Crisis: Adapting and Advancing 61
