“Food waste… why does that even matter? Isn’t food biodegradable?” people might ask when the subject of food wastage is brought up. Truthfully, two weeks ago, I was thinking those same questions (though I was a bit horrified by the idea of wasting perfectly good food!). Due to my instinctive curiosity and love of cuisine, I decided to find out a bit more about the little-known issue of food waste.
First off, yes, anything edible is biodegradable. However, in a landfill food undergoes anaerobic decomposition (which, if you remember from biology class, means without oxygen) and produces copious amounts of methane gas. According to the United Nations, 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted globally each year.
Now, if these 1.3 billion tons of wasted foodmatters is the real question. I hope to come to my own conclusion by educating myself about the environmental, economic, financial, and any other impacts there are. But first, here is one statistic that I find particularly disturbing: 870 million people are malnourished, yet around 30 percent of food produced worldwide is lost or wasted. 30 percent.
It’s ridiculous really; we throw out all this uneaten food, yet everywhere you look people are starving. That's why I have decided to dive "into the trash can," shall we begin?
Thanks!!
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