Growing up, we were often encouraged to eat all our food as there were thousands of starving children elsewhere who would appreciate what was put in front of us. For most children, probably the bigger threat was the lack of dessert if we didn’t eat our vegetables.It seems these well intentioned exhortations have had little effect. Food waste is now on a scale that is absolutely mind-boggling. Food waste now accounts for more than one quarter of the total freshwater consumption and 300 million barrels of oil per year. It is estimated that food wasted by the US and Europe could feed the world three times over. Some 13 percent of all municipal solid waste consists of food scraps and edible cast-offs from residences and food-service establishments restaurants, cafeterias, and the like. When all that food decomposes in landfills, one by-product is methane, which has 20 times the global-warming potency of carbon dioxide. Based on Environmental Protection Agency data, rotting food may be responsible for about one-tenth of all anthropogenic methane emissions.
Part of the problem is the heterogeneous nature of food waste there is no single culprit, just many diffuse sources that add up to a slow and steady bleed on the economy and the environment. Food waste doesn’t necessarily mean something is thrown away. Eating more than our bodies need could be considered a form of food waste too and it doesn’t also mean we always get fat as a result.
In many restaurants and food courts, we can see that there are so many people who waste a lot of food by buying more than they require. I know that these decisions depend on ones own personal choice and conscience. However, does it really seem right to waste food? There are so many people in this world who crave to have even a little bit of this fortune. One should develop a conscience that prevents them from throwing away food to a large extent. Planning meals better, using leftovers creatively, and making just enough instead of too much seem like obvious, simple solutions. People can do the most good by embracing the good old “Three Rs”: reduce, reuse, recycle. Food recovery programs play an important role by collecting surplus food from supermarkets, dining halls, and restaurants and delivering it to food banks and homeless shelters, where it is badly needed. For apple cores, potato peels, and other inedible food scraps, there’s composting-at home and, in a handful of places, on the municipal level.
I do not see any need for food to be thrown away. I hope this letter is an eye-opener for everyone and I hope it will make them realize how serious this issue is.
KOMAL ATA
Lahore
