ARTICLES
Eat the Spotty Banana (continued)
Climate change, in return, exerts a major influence on food
production, through extreme weather events that affect crop
productivity and livestock reproductive cycles. Reducing
consumer demand for the products with the highest environmental
footprint can influence some of these feedback loops.
A significant amount of food waste is due to confusion about food
labels. ‘Use by’ is about food safety, and food cannot be safely
eaten after this date. However, many foods use a ‘Best Before’
label, which is about quality, not safety. Food can still be safely
eaten for some time after the Best Before date.
Food in landfill cannot properly decompose and emits large
volumes of greenhouse gases. Food recovery organisations
such as OzHarvest, Second Bite, and FoodBank help to reduce
wastage of food within its Use By dates.
Fruit and vegetables past their prime can be composted or fed
into worm farms, either at home, in a commercial composting
facility, or your local community garden. This breaks down into a
rich organic matter and closes the loop by returning nutrients to
the soil for the next crop of food.
One kilogram of beef for human consumption is highly inefficient
to produce [Source: Author]
Hold decision-makers accountable
It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of inaction and conflicting
agendas at the highest levels of government and business. But
where you spend your money, and how you vote, are some of
the most powerful ways you can act. Demand more from those
making decisions that affect the future of our society. Support
those who are making changes for the better.
Eating meat is a choice and should be a luxury – for balanced
nutrition you don’t need to give it up completely. Simply by
halving your consumption of beef and lamb could save as much
as 1 tonne of greenhouse gas emissions per person, per year
– equivalent to the emissions generated driving from Sydney to
Perth – and also free up 11 tennis courts of farmland.
Reduce food waste
As much as 30-50% of food produced for human consumption will
never make it to the plate. Food waste costs our economy around
$20 billion annually. Australian consumers throw away over 3.1
million tonnes of edible food – equivalent to 17,000 jumbo jets.
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 4