From red meat to lettuce: how much the food we waste cost the environment

Italy has become the country that wastes less with “suns” 529 grams of food each that ends up in the garbage within a week – above all fruit, vegetables and fresh bread – preceded by France (672 grams) and Spain (836 grams) and always because you don’t look at the expiry date or you buy too much. They are among the most significant data to emerge from the first global report on the relationship between food and waste signed by Waste Watcher announced on the occasion of the International Day of Awareness on Food Losses and Waste of 29 September: data that tell of a world that yes, changes for the better, but repeats the same mistakes and above all has still much to do.

A WORLD CONTRADICTIONS
The UN has just mentioned that nearly one billion tons of food is wasted every year around the world, equal to 17% of all that produced: the same quantity that would be enough to feed 730 million people who instead die of hunger because they live in extreme poverty, and which is the cause not only of a huge waste of money (1000 billion in the world of which about 7 billion in Italy alone) but also 8% -10% of total greenhouse gas emissions.

THE COST FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
The cost of food waste is not only ethical and economic: it is an environmental cost. When we throw it away, we use resources unnecessarily necessary to produce it, first of all water and soil, and also we provoke carbon emissions which are the primary cause of climate change.

HOW MUCH THE FOOD WE THROW COST
To realize it browse the gallery above: the consulting firm on environmental sustainability issues Quantis he calculated for VanityFair.it how many resources are needed to produce some of the most popular foods on our tables (and therefore how much we throw away by discarding them). These data refer to 100 grams of product and take into account key indicators – indeed CO2 emissions, land and water consumption – essential to get an idea of ​​how much what we eat costs the planet and therefore, even more, what we buy and what we don’t eat.

Data to be read not only in absolute terms, but also in relative terms, taking into account first of all that there are specific issues that can have an even greater impact for production, and therefore aggravate the problem. For example, as Quantis points out, food grown in arid soils impacts much more than food grown in water-rich areas, as well as food grown in greenhouses (among the most emblematic is the case of the strawberry: to grow it in a greenhouse you need 10 times more water than that which grows in a vegetable garden). Or again, there is the question of biodiversity which in the case of some foods – such as fish – is unnecessarily put at risk.

RED MEAT & CO
Furthermore, there are some wastes that “weigh” more than others and the most significant example continues to be that of Red meat, which causes the greatest expenditure of resources, with over 5 kilos of carbon emissions required for just 100 grams compared to lettuce which instead requires 17. However, if 1000 tons of lettuce and only 5 tons of meat are wasted, lettuce will have resulted in a higher carbon footprint.

WHAT TO DO
The solution? Stop wasting and choose foods also based on the impact they have on our planet: for this the Mediterranean diet it continues to be a certainty, given that it is the healthiest and most sustainable, not only because it is based on raw materials that require fewer resources to be produced, but also because the one that causes less waste. “The Waste Watcher International” Food & waste around the world “survey – explains the Scientific Director of Waste Watcher International Andrea Segrè, founder of the Spreco Zero campaign, full professor of International Agricultural Policy at the University of Bologna – confirms with precise data il strong connection between consumption habits, food waste and healthy and sustainable diets such as the Mediterranean diet».

Basically we know: the same report by Waste Watcher says that food waste is considered immoral and that we all agree that it causes environmental damage and a waste of resources that no, we can no longer afford.

In the gallery above the foods in comparison. To continue discovering the impact of your diet, Quantis has also made available an online game, at this link. Browse the gallery