The world of food

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 3

The world of food

Do you sometimes waste food?
Why do you usually do this?

Did anyone throw any leftovers away in the school restaurant or cafeteria during lunch today?

Do you think this affects the planet and our environment? Why (not)?

The impact of food waste

• Wasting food costs a lot of money!
• When we waste food, we also waste all the energy, water and other natural resources it takes to grow, harvest, transport and package it. 
• When food rots, it produces methane (= a greenhouse gas), which affects climate change immensely.
  

About 1/3 of all the food produced in the world is thrown away or lost in the production process.

The impact of food waste

Producing food has a big impact on our environment and climate change:

- meat production = deforestation + water shortage + methane

- crops = deforestation + water shortage

- ...

cf. avocado plants in Spain > consequences directly visible!

By producing certain foods, we enhance climate change. This makes the problem of world hunger even worse, because most hungry people live in underdevelopend areas and countries  where climate changes makes it hard or even impossible to grow food. 

The impact of food waste

Producing food has a big impact on our environment and climate change...

...but still we throw away that food (and therefore all the energy and resources that are used to make it) every day...

When we say we want to do something about climate change, should we maybe stop throwing away our food first and not be such hypocrites? 

As the world’s population continues to grow, our challenge should not be how to grow more food, but to feed more people while wasting less of what we already produce. 

>About 1/3 of all the food produced in the world is thrown away or lost in the production process.

> We produce enough food to feed all the people on this planet *1.5

> More than 80% of the world’s hungry people live in places that are highly prone to extreme weather, where a changing climate is only making things worse!

What could we do to reduce
or cut our food waste?

How to cut your food waste

• Watch the videoclip about cutting food waste.
• Take notes while watching.
• Answer the questions based on your notes.

More ideas for video/docu

• Wasted! The story of food waste

•  https://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_foley_the_problem_with_food_and_climate_and_how_to_fix_it 
• 
  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm56PvEYUVQ

How to cut your food waste

• How many potatoes are thrown away every day in the UK?
• How much money does an average UK household lose to food waste every year? 
• If food waste were a country, it would be in ... place of largest greenhouse gas emitters globally.
• How much % of food gets thrown away by supermarkets in the UK? What about households?
• Which foods are wasted most often in our homes? 

Let students answer questions based on their notes.

• Potatoes: 2.9 million
• 
  

How to cut your food waste

• Why are some technological solutions to reducing food waste more popular and widely used than others?
• What are some important issues with our current food system as a whole, according to Tim Bentam? Name two.
• Which important mind shift do we need in order to reduce food waste?
• Name two immediate consequences of resetting our global food system.

Let students answer questions based on their notes.

• Potatoes: 2.9 million
• 
  

List as many solutions to reducing
our food waste as possible

Reducing food loss and waste are key aspects to create sustainable food systems for the health of our environment, climate, and people.
<div>
</div><div><span style="font-weight: bold">The Food Waste Summit</span> brings together experts, politicians, authorities, businesses and civil society in an effort to increase co-operation and bring about urgent action to reduce food loss and waste. The summit comes at an important time when our food loss and waste need to be reduced.&nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>https://summit.refed.org/</div>

<span style="font-weight: bold">2 good 2 go</span> is a is a service with a mobile application that connects customers to restaurants and stores that have leftovers and unsold food. The service was founded in Denmark in 2015 as a way to <span style="font-weight: bold">reduce global food waste and its environmental consequences</span>.&nbsp;<div><br></div><div>The company covers major European cities, and in October 2020, started operations in North America. In 2022 Too Good To Go was the fastest-growing sustainable food app startup by number of downloads. As of August 2022, it claims 164,000 businesses, serving 62 million users, have saved 155 million bags of food.<div>
</div></div><div><br></div><div>https://www.toogoodtogo.com/nl-be&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

Here are a few tips to reduce your food waste on a daily basis:&nbsp;<div><br><div>
</div><div><ul><li>Plan ahead and buy only what you need. Going to the store without a plan or on an empty stomach can lead to buying more than we need. To keep your kitchen on track, try to eat leftovers, think of meals you might eat out, and avoid unnecessary purchases by planning your grocery list ahead of time.</li></ul><ul><li>Use your freezer. While there are plenty of benefits to eating fresh food, frozen foods can be just as nutritious. They also stay edible for much longer. A lot of seafood, for example, is frozen before it reaches your supermarket and then thawed and put on display. That means it will only stay fresh for a few days. By buying frozen seafood, you can extend the shelf life of the product considerably. Cooking and freezing food—especially produce—before it goes bad is a great way to avoid having to toss it.</li></ul><ul><li>Be creative with leftovers. Before you shop, use the food you already have. Websites like Big Oven, Supercook, and MyFridgeFood allow you to search for recipes based on ingredients already in your kitchen. You can also use apps like Epicurious and Allrecipes to make the most of what's in your fridge and pantry.</li></ul><ul><li>Blend, bake, or boil. Fruits and vegetables that are beyond ripe may not look pretty, but that doesn't mean they can't still taste delicious in recipes. Try using your wilting, browning, or imperfect produce to make sweet smoothies, bread, jams, sauces, or soup stocks.</li></ul><ul><li>Talk it up. Preventing food waste is the most effective way to shrink its impact on the planet. If we avoid producing food that we don't eat, we can save the land, water, and energy that would have been used to make it. And awareness is a good first step; according to ReFED, educating consumers about food waste could prevent 7.41 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.</li></ul></div><div>
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