Letter to the Editor

To the Editor,

A problem with the population buying food is in the instance of when it is wasted. Twenty percent of the products we buy are never consumed. Food being wasted is a world problem that humans can most easily solve. So there is no reason why we can't try to be more conservative when we shop and only buy what we need. The reason why people shouldn't waste food is because it affects many things, such as the atmosphere, the Earth, the poor and farms. At the moment the world can do better than wasting 1.3 billion tonnes of food per year. There have been a number of attempts from organisations and individuals to make the world more aware of the issue, but their attempts haven't stopped humans in their way. Better education on the topic is an important step to reduce the world’s figures of food waste.

There are many reasons that wastage of food is an issue. These reasons include harm to the environment when it breaks down into landfill, the unfair distribution of food between the rich and the poor, and the wastage of water and labour that goes into uneaten food. When food is put into landfill and breaks down, it releases the green house gas methane. Food waste is an important issue because food is being wasted at the same time people are missing meals. More than ten percent of the world’s population is hungry. This ten percent of the population is either in poverty or homeless and don't have access or the sufficient funds to buy the food that they deserve. It is unreasonable that the general population doesn't give any of their surplus food to the people who need it the most. If everyone gave five percent of the food they buy at the supermarket, famine would be ended. We are also being stubborn and not sustainable when we buy more than we need. Agricultural workers work for hours growing the food that we don't eat, but instead just throw into the bin to go into landfill. Wasting food is also bad for the environment, because when food goes to landfill it releases a toxic gas called methane. Methane is a toxin 21 times more toxic than Carbon Dioxide. Not only food is wasted, but hundreds of litres of water go to waste for every fresh product we throw out. This is the water that goes into growing the produce and is known as virtual water. One big issue easily resolved will help a lot of small issues along the way.

The world wastes 1.3 Billion tonnes of food annually, Australia contributing four million tonnes of this waste. Each Australian household spends on average $1000 each year on food that they never eat. This is caused by too much food being cooked in advance, shopping lists being misleading and plentiful, inefficient use of left overs, takeaway being eaten instead of food at home, and hesitance towards foods on the verge of their use-by dates. Fresh foods are the most wasted foods, because of their short shelf life, followed closely by left overs. The least wasted category of food is take away, because it is served up as single portion, which eliminates the possibility of left overs. Wealthier people and families with young children are the biggest wasters of food in our population, but it is our duty to work together to reduce the world’s food waste figures.

Big organisations and prominent leaders of the world have acted on food waste. The United Nations Food and Agriculture organisation devote their time to reduce the world’s food waste, they work to educate people about it and write online articles for reading. They also run ‘World Food Day,’ which will be on October 16th this year. ‘World Food Day’ is a day for the awareness of hunger, waste and other food related issues. National Geographic has also tackled the issue by writing an article, ‘One-Third of Food is Lost or Wasted: What Can Be Done.’ The Catholic leader, Pope Francis mentions the issue by saying it is like ‘stealing from the poor.’ It is together that we can stop wasting food.

The issue of food waste affects farms, the poor, the Earth and the atmosphere. 1.3 Billion Tonnes tonnes is too much wasted food, we have work together to solve the world’s most solvable problem.

Luke Cooper