I've been pondering over this.
Why is food waste a problem? Have you thought about it?
You may think it's a stupid question. Cos maybe you think it's common sense. People shouldn't waste food, so when people waste food, it MUST be a problem.
But have you thought about it further?
Why is it a problem?
Food is biodegradable. Means... Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. It goes back into the ground. So why is wasted food a problem?
There are leaves falling all over the forest. But no one is calling that a problem. 100kg of leaves in the forest, vs 100kg of kailan thrown away. What's the difference?
Or some people may think. Wasted food can feed the poor. Those are 2 different issues. Poverty or the poor is not eradicated by feeding them. There are a lot of factors why people are poor. Mental issues, family issues, lack of the right kind of knowledge, inability to integrate with society, etc... Yes we can reduce food waste by using it to feed the poor. But that does not stop the poor from being poor. It just feeds them.
Example... If you read about homeless veterans in the US. There are organizations helping them. They clean the vets up, give them a place to stay, feed them, help them get back on their feet, but after a few days/weeks, they are back on the streets again.
So poverty is poverty. Food waste is food waste. You can reduce food waste by using the food to feed the poor, it may or may not help them from being poor, but at least it keeps them from being hungry. But what's the problem with food waste? Why is it a problem? Why do we need to reduce it?
If no one wasted food, people would still be poor, then what? So no. These are 2 distinct problems.
So I did some reading.
https://olioex.com/food-waste/the-problem-of-food-waste/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/04/07/how-wasting-less-food-can-help-save-the-planet/
Here are 2 of the sites amongst others.
Ok so what is the problem?
There are a few.
And due to my corporate training, I like to define them properly. I don't like to just use a blanket statement, cos it doesn't define the problem into actionable issues.
So I don't like the statement, food waste is a problem. Or let's reduce food waste by... Doing XYZ...
To me, defining the problem correctly first is more important than doing the things to fix the wrong problem. There's no point patting yourself on the back fixing the wrong problem.
So I'll try to define it more specifically. The list is not complete and I don't have the solutions.
I'm just trying to understand better, why food waste is considered a problem. Considering that leaves fall in forests, but those are not considered problems.
At the production level...
1. Large amounts of land is cleared to farm and produce food. This destroys forests and habitats of animals and such.
2. Resources are put into the production of food, petrol for farm vehicles, water consumption, energy for factories that produce fertilizer or pesticides, etc.
3. Petrol and energy to bring the food from the farm and distribute it to the multiple layers in the system.
All these actions have an impact on the environment. And consumption of energy and resources typically releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
These are producer level issues. Will consumer choices change their actions? I don't know. If consumers are willing to eat deformed vegetables, will farmers produce less? Or will producers keep trying to find more efficient ways to produce so as to sell cheaper products and get a bigger market share?
Next are the consumer level issues.
4. When consumers throwaway food, edible or inedible, they need to be transported to a disposal area. This further wastes resources.
5. Food ends up in landfills along with other rubbish. They do not decompose normally like the leaves in the forest as they are compressed and decompose with a lack of oxygen which produces methane which traps more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
6. A lot of food is individually wrapped in cling wrap or plastic containers and all these are excess resources that end up in the landfill.
This is all market inefficiency. Along the whole supply chain all the way to the consumer, no one is taxed or regulated adequately relative to the impact they have on the environment.
This is a long drawn out issue on so many fronts. It's not just about not throwing away food from our fridges. It's all the way along the food chain.
From governments who need to better regulate unnecessary food production, but as a food producer, would you like that? Would this increase cost for consumers?
To consumers who need to be better educated about expiry dates or reduce cosmetic filtering, but are you willing to buy ugly vegetables? When we have a choice, why should we?
Or maybe we can have better waste management so that food waste is properly decomposed instead of just filling up the landfill. Once again, this requires government regulation.
Ok. I don't have the answers. I didn't start out trying to solve the problem. I wanted to understand what is the problem. Why is food waste a problem.
"Food" is wasted in nature all the time. Not all leaves are eaten, they fall to the ground and rot. Not all dead animals are eaten, they die and rot.
If I lived in a forest of kailan, I could eat a little the rest of the forest would just rot and regrow.
This is all "wasted" food, but this is not a problem in nature.
So the problem is not about wasting food per se. But rather, over production, poor waste management, poor consumer education, poor government regulation, poor school system, etc.
Now, that's not to say I think people should stop their efforts, or that I will just dump my half eaten plate of charkwayteow. Everyone has their own beliefs on how to contribute to solve or mitigate this problem, and they are free to do what they want. But I think it would be naive to think that just by consuming all the excess, or to reallocate the food to the poor will solve the problem. It would require a multi faceted effort to truly solve this issue across many countries.
For me, I believe, everything will have it's time and place. It's like teaching a child. When the child is ready to learn, he/she will learn very quickly, and willingly acquire the new knowledge. But if the child does not want to learn, it will take a lot of effort and frustration on both the parent and child with minimal result.
Every generation of people or government will prioritize the issues they want to tackle and how they want to progress. Some ideals or ideas may just be too advanced for it's time.
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