Reducing food-waste;
“a call to action”
For some, petty snacks; for some, a day’s meal
Introduction & aim
“All great things have small beginnings.”
If you take the time to delve into it, this quote by Peter Senge is quite profound.
With this quote as our guiding principle, we undertake a humble endeavor to actively
work towards reducing the amount of food that goes to waste, both within and
beyond the bounds of our school community. Our school is a place that is deeply
familiar to us, a second home, where we spend a significant amount of our time,
learning and growing. We feel a strong sense of responsibility towards our
community, and we recognize the importance of taking action to address the issue of
food waste. Our goal is clear and unambiguous: to make a concerted effort towards
minimizing the amount of food that goes to waste, and to do so with utmost
dedication and commitment.
It is a fact that everyone wastes food at some point, whether it's once or multiple
times. This is not an individual issue; in fact, more than 1.3 billion tons of food are
wasted every year, leading to over 200 million Indians sleeping on an empty
stomach each day (“HINDRISE NGO”, n.d.). These statistics are alarming, and the
worldwide numbers are even more staggering, with over 811 million people waking-
up every day, uncertain of finding food to feed their starving stomachs (“UN”, n.d.). If
we do not take action, the situation is bound to worsen.
National perspective
In an eye-opening revelation Indian households waste 50 kilograms of food per
person per year or 68,760,163 tons a year (United Nations Environment
Programme's Food Waste Index Report 2021 2021). In India 40% of the food is
wasted which is equivalent to Rs 92,000 crore a year. A lot of content creators buy
extra amounts of food to make videos so as to gain more followers, furthermore
netizens also support this. As a result more and more influencers do this. The most
common reason for food waste in India is that food; good, edible food; is wasted
instead of shared. To prevent this,The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
(FSSAI) has launched the Save food, Share food, Share joy initiative for the
distribution of food that could be potentially wasted (The WIRE 2021).
Global perspective
Globally around 14 percent of food produced is lost between harvest and retail
(Teneva 2022). An estimated 17 percent of total global food production is wasted
(Teneva 2022). Nancy Aburto, Deputy Director of FAO’s Food and Nutrition Division
Economic and Social Development Stream says that food insecurity, hunger, and
malnutrition is impacting every country (Sadurni 2021). As a result of over 1.3 billion
tonnes of food wastage annually- (Kaur, Rani, and Yogalakshmi 2020) a greenhouse
gas called methane is created, contributing to global warming and climate change
(Kaur, Rani, and Yogalakshmi 2020). In the USA about 40% of the food produced is
uneaten and 95% of the discarded food becomes landfill (Harvard T.H. Chan 2023).
Grocery stores face the challenge of quality control and waste an astonishing 43
billion pounds of food every year because it no longer meets their strict quality
standards (“Pela Earth” 2022).
Learning outcome
During our investigative interview with the cafeteria manager, we delved into various
aspects of the cafeteria's food service, including their approach to managing food
wastage. As we probed deeper, we discovered that rather than discarding leftover
food, the cafeteria employs an environmentally conscious strategy of converting it
into compost. Additionally, we learned that they also have a system in place to
donate excess food to individuals or groups in need, thereby reducing the amount of
food that goes to waste.
Conclusion
To conclude, food waste is a major worldwide issue that also impacts the
environment, food security, and the economy, but also depletes resources. Even if
leftover food eventually breaks down, it still releases damaging greenhouse gasses
that fuel climate change. As a result, efforts to reduce food waste were important, as
were efforts for food recovery and donation as well as the establishment of reducing
waste laws. By reducing food waste, we may not only support the conservation of
natural assets but also advance a more just and sustainable society for everybody.
“Thank You”
Credits
Akshara ० Dhyana ० Krisha ० Maanye ० Palaash ० Sachi ० Yugraj
