35% of food is thrown away in high-income economies.
That number seems pretty high. I wonder where most of the waste happens? Somewhat contrived scenario here, but suppose the drug store buys a new food product. Customers aren’t having it so they throw it away. But then due to this awareness campaign, next time they keep it on the shelf—which means they don’t have room for something customers do want to buy, so the customers drive to a different store, cancelling out the alleged food waste benefit. Again, contrived, I just feel like we should know why the waste is happening before working to stop it. There’s a clear financial incentive not to waste food. Maybe it’s mostly food with a short shelf life, like fresh vegetables, that people intend to eat but never do?
Instead of a public campaign against food waste, maybe a public campaign that shows the decarbonization benefit of everyday lifestyle changes. Which is better from an individual perspective: stop driving and take the bus to work, or cut food waste from 35% to 0%?
“Which is better from an individual perspective: stop driving and take the bus to work, or cut food waste from 35% to 0%?”
The drawdown project seems to suggest that cutting food waste is better, because it’s rated third on its list whereas mass transit is 37th. However I hesitate to suggest people follow the guidance of Drawdown. I contacted them a few years ago (before the big media splash) with some questions about their methodology and got no reply. So I don’t feel willing to endorse (or condemn) their work.
Surely some food emits much more carbon than other food. Maybe we could just tax food based on how much carbon it emits? Then people won’t want to throw it away because they don’t want to waste their money. (And they’ll also substitute high-emission food for low-emission food.)
Most of the business-driven elements of the food supply chain are quite efficient, I’m told. I.e. each of manufacture, transport, and retail management. The waste comes almost entirely from customers buying things they don’t need and then throwing them away.
If so, the most likely downside, if any, is the risk of people consuming food after its use-by date.
My source for this claim is a pitch from a food-waste charity. I consider this to be a slightly better source than a person chosen at random, however I didn’t get the impression that the charity was rigorous about fact-checking its claims, so I can’t promise this is correct.
That number seems pretty high. I wonder where most of the waste happens? Somewhat contrived scenario here, but suppose the drug store buys a new food product. Customers aren’t having it so they throw it away. But then due to this awareness campaign, next time they keep it on the shelf—which means they don’t have room for something customers do want to buy, so the customers drive to a different store, cancelling out the alleged food waste benefit. Again, contrived, I just feel like we should know why the waste is happening before working to stop it. There’s a clear financial incentive not to waste food. Maybe it’s mostly food with a short shelf life, like fresh vegetables, that people intend to eat but never do?
Instead of a public campaign against food waste, maybe a public campaign that shows the decarbonization benefit of everyday lifestyle changes. Which is better from an individual perspective: stop driving and take the bus to work, or cut food waste from 35% to 0%?
“Which is better from an individual perspective: stop driving and take the bus to work, or cut food waste from 35% to 0%?”
The drawdown project seems to suggest that cutting food waste is better, because it’s rated third on its list whereas mass transit is 37th. However I hesitate to suggest people follow the guidance of Drawdown. I contacted them a few years ago (before the big media splash) with some questions about their methodology and got no reply. So I don’t feel willing to endorse (or condemn) their work.
Surely some food emits much more carbon than other food. Maybe we could just tax food based on how much carbon it emits? Then people won’t want to throw it away because they don’t want to waste their money. (And they’ll also substitute high-emission food for low-emission food.)
“I wonder where most of the waste happens?”
Most of the business-driven elements of the food supply chain are quite efficient, I’m told. I.e. each of manufacture, transport, and retail management. The waste comes almost entirely from customers buying things they don’t need and then throwing them away.
If so, the most likely downside, if any, is the risk of people consuming food after its use-by date.
My source for this claim is a pitch from a food-waste charity. I consider this to be a slightly better source than a person chosen at random, however I didn’t get the impression that the charity was rigorous about fact-checking its claims, so I can’t promise this is correct.