Humanity’s penchant to waste food is trashing the planet
The next time you pour expired milk down the drain or throw away wilted vegetables, consider how this waste could have been avoided. A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) finds the world is in the grip of an epidemic of food wastage. In 2019, consumers tossed away nearly a billion tonnes of food or 17 per cent of all the fare they bought.
That is deeply problematic in a world where 690 million people were undernourished in 2019, a number expected to rise sharply with COVID-19. It’s also bad for the planet. 8-10 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from producing food that is ultimately thrown away.