Thought for food: How food waste impacts climate change
Tossing leftovers that went bad in the trash might not seem like a big deal – or even something to think about. However, when combined with other households, businesses and food producers that put food in the trash, it adds up to one-third of all food produced going to waste in the United States. Project Drawdown estimates that food waste is responsible for roughly 8% of global emissions.
When we waste food, we also waste the resources that went into producing and transporting it. Consider the efforts given to grow and produce the food – fertilizers, land use, water and human work. Emissions created from transporting the food and manufacturing it. Refrigeration and energy use gets wasted. Wasted occurs through the entire process from the farm to the trash, which impacts our climate. Meanwhile, food insecurity is continuing to grow as a result of inflation, production cost increases and the ripple effect of COVID.
Most food waste ends up in landfills in the United States, where it then breaks down and releases methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas emission that traps heat in our atmosphere, leading to increasing global temperatures that impact and even change our climates. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that wasted food causes 58% of methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills.
It’s a snowball effect. Wasted food increases greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn contribute to climate change that can threaten our food systems. As average temperatures rise, certain diseases spread more quickly and can impact our food supply. Extreme weather events can damage farms and make transporting food difficult. When our food chain supply is disrupted, certain foods might become more expensive or harder to get. This can impact the entire food system, resulting in less access to food, and disproportionally affecting those who already experience food insecurity.
Ramsey County has created the Climate Equity Action Plan to guide our response to climate change. One of the focus areas promotes healthy lives. A goal is to advance food security efforts to align with the Food Security Strategic Plan. This could look like removing barriers to food distribution, developing policy to support existing community gardens and expanding food availability and affordability. Ramsey County invested nearly $800,000 of funding to support local food shelves, food banks and food rescue programs in 2022/23. This helped provide more than 5 million pounds of food to the community.
Food security and food waste are two sides of the same coin. A significant amount of food is going to waste at the same time that people are experiencing hunger. Both the Food Security Strategic Plan and Climate Equity Action Plan guide Ramsey County’s work to effectively and equitably promote resilient communities.
While we continue to build climate resiliency within our food systems, the work isn’t done after producing the food. Reducing food waste and composting food scraps are two actions that even when done as an individual, can have larger impacts when combined with the efforts of others. Consider collecting food scraps for composting if you don’t already or designate an area of your fridge for leftovers so you can easily find them, and they don’t go to waste.
Learn more:
Ramsey County food scraps programs