{"id":593,"date":"2023-06-27T15:53:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T13:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.zhaw.ch\/eat-grow-change\/?p=593"},"modified":"2023-06-28T09:42:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T07:42:00","slug":"edit-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.zhaw.ch\/eat-grow-change\/2023\/06\/27\/edit-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding food waste is an opportunity to reduce our ecological foodprint.<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A post by Ad\u00e8le Garret<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Figure 1: an artistic rendering of the topic of food waste that was created by prompting DALLE-2 <\/em>(https:\/\/openai.com\/product\/dall-e-2)<\/em><\/a> with \u201cA photorealistic image of the topic of food waste and its ecological footprint\u201d.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You know the score \u2013 it is estimated that a quarter to half of the food we produce worldwide is wasted or lost [1]. This makes reducing food waste and loss a key component in reducing food insecurity and in achieving the reduction of human impact on water use, land use, and the climate [1; 2].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where does it happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many world-regions, climate conditions, inadequate storage conditions and poor transportation methods lead to food being lost [1]. In Switzerland however, most of the waste happens during processing (35%). Households are responsible for about 28% of the waste, while the gastronomy accounts for 7% of food waste. Wholesale and retail waste around 10% of food, while agriculture is responsible for approximately 20% of the total food loss [2].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the environmental impact<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoidable food loss amounts to 25% of the nutrition-related footprint and accounts for 24 % of the climate impact of the Swiss food system [4]. Food that is not used, indirectly wastes the resources that were used to produce it [1] and has environmental impacts [2]. As an example, consider the sightly rotten apple you threw away: it needs to be produced twice, because you wish to eat the perfect apple. Logical consequence, the further out in the value chain the waste happens, the worst the environmental impact [3].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can be done against it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since April 2022, Switzerland has set up an action plan<\/a> that involves corporations, the public sector, federations, and associations [8] while initiatives such as https:\/\/foodwaste.ch\/<\/a> do a great job at raising consumers\u2019 awareness. Wasted food is a lost opportunities to save CO2<\/sub> emissions, to preserve biodiversity and to increase both worldwide and national food security. By combining a reduction of wasted food with a change for a more plant-based – and thus less resource-intensive- diet we can change our food systems for the best [7].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This blog post was written in spring 2023 as part of the module “Weltern\u00e4hrungssysteme” in the Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering at the ZHAW Institute of Natural Resource Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Guo, X., Broeze, J., Groot, J. J., Axmann, H., & Vollebregt, M. (2020). A worldwide hotspot analysis on food loss and waste, associated greenhouse gas emissions, and protein losses. Sustainability<\/em>, 12<\/em>(18), 7488. https:\/\/edepot.wur.nl\/532420<\/a>
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Hensel K. (2021, December 22). Why Reducing Food Loss and Waste Matters – IFT.org<\/em>. https:\/\/www.ift.org\/news-and-publications\/digital-exclusives\/why-reducing-food-loss-and-waste-matters<\/a>
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. FAO. (2019). The state of the food and agriculture. Moving Forward on Food Loss and Waste reduction. <\/em>https:\/\/www.fao.org\/3\/CA6030EN\/CA6030EN.pdf<\/a>
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Beretta, C., & Hellweg, S. (2019). Lebensmittelverluste in der Schweiz: Umweltbelastung und Vermeidungspotential. Institut f\u00fcr Umweltingenieurwissenschaften: Zurich, Switzerland<\/em>.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Chapagain, A., & James, K. (2013). Accounting for the impact of food waste on water resources and climate change. Food industry wastes<\/em>, 217-236.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Springmann, M., Clark, M., Mason-D\u2019Croz, D., Wiebe, K., Bodirsky, B. L., Lassaletta, L., … & Willett, W. (2018). Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits. Nature<\/em>, 562<\/em>(7728), 519-525. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-018-0594-0<\/a>
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Cattaneo, A., Federighi, G., & Vaz, S. (2021). The environmental impact of reducing food loss and waste: A critical assessment. Food Policy<\/em>, 98<\/em>, 101890. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.foodpol.2020.101890<\/a>.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. BAFU. (2022). Aktionsplan gegen die Lebensmittelverschwendung. https:\/\/www.bafu.admin.ch\/dam\/bafu\/de\/dokumente\/abfall\/externe-studien-berichte\/aktionsplan_gegen_die_lebensmittelverschwendung.pdf.download.pdf\/Aktionsplan%20gegen%20die%20Lebensmittelverschwendung.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    Schlagw\u00f6rter: Climate Crise<\/a>, Ecological Footprint<\/a>, Food Loss<\/a>, Food Waste<\/a>, Opportunity<\/a>, Switzerland<\/a>
    <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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