Hear an introduction into the fight of food waste by Rowen from Waste Not Rowen.
For far too long the issue of food waste has gone almost unnoticed. I believe deep down that a small conscious part of everyone remarks on cooking too much and having to throw away the leftovers, or feels pain when a use-by date comes and goes, the thought of then consuming it making their stomach twist. Occasionally these things happen, but the story of that disposed of food doesn’t end with the bin, nor did it start when you picked it up at the supermarket. There’s a far greater untold tale that the majority of the world is happy to be ignorant of.
To say our food system is broken is inaccurate because our food system was never fit and healthy in the first place. By the year 2050, it is estimated that we will require 56% more food production, which involves an extra 600 million hectares of land (almost twice the size of India) to meet the demand of overpopulation. This is a shocking statistic and I imagine you are thinking “How will we ever achieve that?”, much the same as I did when I first saw this fact. The answer on paper is simple: we throw away 40% of all food produced so if we were to stop that, we have a far more manageable 16% increase in food production to handle. On top of that, reducing our meat consumption, hereby lowering the demand, could lead to utilising the land used previously for livestock feed as food for human consumption, increasing food production further.
I digress to issues further down the line. The bulk of the issue is this: The UK creates 9.52 million tonnes of food waste every year (enough to fill 190 Royal Albert Halls). It’s estimated that 75% of that food waste was still edible when it was disposed of, and contributes to 20% of all Green House Gas Emissions. It’s fine to sit back and blame a system that is out of our hands, but unfortunately the truth is that 70% of all the waste comes from our homes. Just from reading this, you are now part of this mission with me to reduce our food waste, spread knowledge and awareness, and create a brighter future for our food system.
Why not attend the food waste workshop with Rowen?
