The Food Waste Problem
An issue we can each do something about
Look in your own garbage can: 30%-50% of it is likely compostable! America wastes roughly 40% of its food (approximately 80 billion pounds), creating significant multiple environmental impacts and a growing humanitarian crisis.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the production of wasted food in the US is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of 37 million cars.
Explore this topic more at FoodPrint.org.
Why is Food Waste a Problem?
This video, brought to you by 501c3 Kiss the Ground, is a great explainer!
According to the USDA, EPA, Natural Resources Defense Council and Drawdown, food waste:
Wastes Multiple Resources - Food waste squanders seeds, water, energy, land, fertilizer, hours of labor, and financial capital.
Generates Potent Greenhouse Gases - In landfills, without the presence of oxygen, decaying food scraps and other organics produce methane which is 26 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. The food we waste is responsible for roughly 8% of global emissions. (To learn more, explore this website.)
Causes Water Pollution - Food waste is among the leading causes of fresh water pollution.
Carelessly Expends Consumer Money - Costs us in the United States approximately $218 billion per year.
Has a Huge Humanitarian Cost -At a time when 12% of American households are food insecure, reducing food waste by just 15% could provide enough sustenance to feed more than 25 million people, annually. (To learn more, explore this website)
We all eat. But we don’t eat everything on our plate. And so much food never makes it to our plate in the first place—squandered and sent to the landfill.
“A third of the food raised or prepared does not make it from farm or factory to fork.”
— Drawdown
What You Can Do About It:
Ways of Reducing Food Waste
Solution #1: Diverting good, edible food to those in need:
Dirty Gaia/Backyard to Table, a local organization, seasonally partners with the food pantries at Rhinebeck Reformed Church and Church of the Messiah. Local growers are welcome to place excess veg from backyard gardens into donation coolers to be given out to the food insecure.
Rhinebeck CSC is seeking partnerships and volunteers to divert unused food to Rhinebeck’s food pantries and FeedHV, a local nonprofit that brings excess food to area shelters.
Ask local restaurants what they do with their food scraps and encourage them to work with the above organizations or start composting.
Solution #2: Changing our shopping and cooking habits
Do a fridge audit: understand what is rotting away in your refrigerator and plan to buy less of it
Learn recipes that reuse food scraps
Get a grip on expiration dates
Compost your remaining scraps or find a farmer who will feed them to their some pigs or chickens!
Rhinebeck businesses make a difference.
Bread Alone has done a lot of work on their waste.
“We’re proud to partner with Toast Ale USA to help minimize our waste stream from the bakery. A certified B Corp, Toast reclaims surplus bread and turns it into delicious beer. As fermentation lovers we couldn’t think of a better use of our day-old sourdoughs than a crisp IPA. To date, Toast has saved roughly 2200 pounds of bread in 5100 gallons of beer. Additionally, we compost food waste both within the bakery and in the cafes, and donate leftover bread to soup kitchens, farmers, and to organizations such as City Harvest.”— Bread Alone
CSC Task Force member Corinna Borden has given multiple food waste presentations in Rhinebeck.
Here’s a recording of her presentation at Starr Library