The theme for this year’s World Environment Day
celebrations is 1.3 billionThink. Eat. Save. Think. Eat. Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your foodprint. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount
produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At
the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5
die daily from hunger.
Given this enormous imbalance in
lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, this
year’s theme – Think.Eat.Save – encourages you to become more aware of the
environmental impact of the food choices you make and empowers you to make
informed decisions.
While the planet is struggling to
provide us with enough resources to sustain its 7 billion people (growing to 9
billion by 2050), FAO estimates that a third of global food production is
either wasted or lost. Food waste is an enormous drain on natural resources and
a contributor to negative environmental impacts.
This year’s campaign rallies you to
take action from your home and then witness the power of collective decisions
you and others have made to reduce food waste, save money, minimise the
environmental impact of food production and force food production processes to
become more efficient.
If food is wasted, it means that all
the resources and inputs used in the production of all the food are also lost. For example, it takes about 1,000 litres of water to
produce 1 litre of milk and about 16,000 litres goes into a cow’s food to make
a hamburger. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions from the cows themselves,
and throughout the food supply chain, all end up in vain when we waste food.
In fact, the global food production occupies 25% of all
habitable land and is responsible for 70% of fresh water consumption, 80% of
deforestation, and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is the largest single
driver of biodiversity loss and land-use change.
Making informed decision therefore means, for example, that
you purposefully select foods that have less of an environmental impact, such
as organic foods that do not use chemicals in the production process. Choosing
to buy locally can also mean that foods are not flown halfway across the world
and therefore limit emissions.
So think before you eat and
help save our environment!