FOOD

If food waste was a country, it would be the world's third biggest contributor to greenhouse emissions. A third of all food produced globally is wasted. In the UK alone, 1.9 million tonnes of food go to waste. Animal farming is one of the activities producing methane, a gas with a warming potential more that 80 times that of CO2.

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Solutions include better harvest and storage technologies to avoid waste along the supply chain, increased composting facilities to transform food waste into useful resources. But these solutions start with our diet. In Europe, consumers take a big slice of the blame: estimates suggest that households are responsible for 53% of all food waste in Europe. When we waste food, we also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport, and package it. By making better choices, we can also reduce our impact and influence the rest of the food value chain.

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Eating more sustainably means eating less meat, avoiding food waste, avoiding food packaging, and composting what is left.

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More information: FAO videos on the overall issue and on detailed weaknesses to solve in the food value chain.