The Impact of Food Waste

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/04/07/how-wasting-less-food-can-help-save-the-planet/?utm_term=.f250d9f9379c

As I was searching for information about food waste and the impact it has, I came across an interesting article on The Washington Post. It discussed how food waste is a huge environmental problem, and that research indicates that the problem will only continue to grow. Studies show that we are already producing more food than we need, and most of the excess food we have is being wasted. As of 2010, people are producing 20 percent more food than what is needed to feed populations. While none of the excess food is getting to people who really need it. The UN estimated that there is enough food to solve world hunger, but the only problem is our extra amount of food is not being put into better use.It is shown that large amounts of greenhouse gases that go into producing extra food leads to global warming and climate change.It was reported that emissions required to produce all wasted food amounted to at least 3.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide, and that the emission associated with excess food is only growing.  In the article, researchers stated that food surplus was equivalent to food waste because the amount of food that was not needed to meet the nation’s requirements was still being produced. Keeping in mind that some of the food surplus was given to animals or consumed by people overeating. Researchers believe that the problem of food waste will only continue to grow along with the increase of carbon dioxide in many countries around the world if we do not take action immediately. We can expect to see many drastic changes in people’s diets, our climate, and our environment if we continue with the poor distribution of food.