We are Destroying our Planet With Food
Rotting food, photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash
The world throws out food as if there are no hungry people and it is simply destroying our planet. From households to the hospitality industry, food waste is a massive problem. Between 30% and 40% of food from around the world never even reaches any plates as it has either gone off, broken in transportation or is simply thrown away for something else to take its place on the shelf. The question is what can be done in the food industry itself to become more eco-friendly.
When people think of all the problems that come with food and the negative effect it is having on the planet, they forget about the transportation part of the food industry. Most restaurants do source their meat locally but get non-perishables from further afield.
Ramsey Yates is a Sous Chef at Cecchinis, a small Italian family restaurant in Ayr. He said: “Most bases and ingredients for sauces such as tomato puree will come from Italy but we get both our chicken and beef locally from Ayrshire.”
Obviously Italian restaurants want to get that authentic Italian flavour, but it could be argued that sourcing locally wouldn’t affect the flavour and would do far less damage than continuous transportation of food around the globe.
According to the WWF, if all of the world’s food waste was put together, the emissions would put it right behind America and China as the largest emitter of greenhouse gas. Food waste is also one of the easiest things that we could fix together. Especially in the western world, food is taken for granted. If other developing countries start to follow in their lead, it will only get worse.
However, some restaurants are taking steps to deal with their food waste. McDonald's use old oil from their fryers to fuel their delivery trucks to make it greener, which is a massive step forward.
Yates said that his workplace was also doing more to reduce food waste. “All our food waste gets put into a certain bin and one of our chefs takes it to an allotment where people grow fruit and vegetables, they use it for their compost to help their plants grow.”
If more independent cafes and restaurants did this, it would not only help the planet but smaller community gardens as well. It would work in a cycle where restaurants could provide waste for compost and then buy fruit and vegetables for a reduced fee back. Starting small like this is the best way to help and the difference on earth would be noticeable if everyone participated.
The power for change is in everyone’s hands and people such as Yates show that it isn’t difficult to do this in a fast-paced working environment.