/ Published May 29, 2015
Wasted food is taking a dangerous toll on our global resources, adding to the chemical load burdening our atmosphere, oceans, land and bodies. What can we do about it?
The indelible marks humans have made on the natural environment should soon lead to the official naming of a new geologic epoch, appropriately called the Anthropocene (anthropo- is Greek for “human”) Epoch. As an atmospheric chemist, I am acutely aware of many of these marks: the chemical load now being borne by our atmosphere, oceans, land and our own bodies. But some consequences are subtler than the Antarctic ozone hole or calving glaciers; sometimes we only notice when we really look.
Tristram Stuart does just that as he turns a critical eye to our food system in Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal (W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), a book I find both convicting and inspiring. The sheer immensity of our food waste problem is overwhelming, and Waste could easily leave a person feeling powerless to effect changes in behavior. Fortunately, the book ends with hope: a powerful illustration of success in Japan and Korea and a clarion call to action for all of us.
Waste highlights that our food production and usage patterns are untenable now and unsustainable going forward. In the United States we discard or destroy so much food that we must ultimately produce or purchase more than twice the amount we will actually eat—which in itself is more than we need. In order to meet this demand globally, we consume vast expanses of forests, wetlands and grasslands, affecting the release of carbon dioxide and methane, the most prominent greenhouse gases. Our collective diet requires one-and-a-half planets’ worth of resources per year to feed it!
Stuart’s tale of our excesses speaks to me because it underscores issues that are integral to my own research and teaching. My research seeks to understand the fate of chemicals as they travel through the atmosphere, and this relies on knowing the physical and chemical origins of atmospheric pollutants.
I also seek to equip students with the tools for solving environmental problems: the chemistry knowledge, but also a sense of the milieu within which the problem exists. Waste has both. The buildup in greenhouse gas emissions from food production ultimately leads to shifting temperatures, precipitation and atmospheric chemical load. And the great irony in our food system is that the burden we place on the earth’s resources to produce more than we use is often borne by people who cannot even acquire enough to survive; Sweden now grows wine grapes while Africa withers and dries.
The prescription for curtailing food waste is schematically the same as it is for any other resource: take only what you need and repurpose any leftovers. In short, be conscious of what you consume. This will free up resources we can use to fight both climate change and chronic hunger. And in the end, isn’t that a marker of a healthy diet?
Andrew Berke is an assistant professor of chemistry at Smith.
