Your daily waste of carbon emissions is as much as 8 kilometers from driving | Low -carbon life · Food chapter (6)

Food production accounts for about 1/4 of global greenhouse gas emissions.

One -third of them have not been eaten

It was thrown away directly.

Carbon emissions caused by food waste

It is about three times the global aviation emissions.

Food may be by retailers, restaurants

Waste it with consumers.

The main reasons include:

Storage in the food supply chain

And the waste of processing technology is not good,

Or discarded by restaurants and consumers.

In order to produce these foods,

We invested land, water, energy and fertilizer.

If you count it again

Farmers' food loss during production and harvesting,

Real data of carbon emissions caused by food waste,

It may actually be higher.

Even so,

The average person in the world isted every day for food

Carbon emissions are 1.25kg,

It is equivalent to driving 8 kilometers!

If the amount of discharge caused by the waste of food

Compared with the emissions of countries around the world,

It will be the third largest discharge country in the world.

Only China and the United States have higher emissions.

In addition to carbon emissions,

Food waste requires a lot of water.

The amount of water needed for food annually,

Equivalent to the annual flow of the Russian Volga River,

It is three times the water storage capacity of Lake Geneva.

Food production also takes up land.

At present, human losses and waste of food at present,

Use 28% of the world's arable land

(1.4 billion hectares of land) Produced.

The proportion of waste of different types of food is different.

From a global perspective,

Block crops, fruits and vegetables

The highest waste proportion,

It reached 40-50%,

Countries, regions and continents in the world

The proportion of food waste is also different.

In the United States, food loss and waste

About one -third of the food that can be edible.

EPA estimation,

The annual discharge caused by food loss and waste of the United States,

About 170 million tons of carbon dioxide proper amount

(Excluding waste landfill emissions),

This is equivalent to 42 coal -fired power plants

Carbon dioxide emissions year.

This estimation does not include kitchen waste garbage

During the time to enter the garbage landfill,

A large amount of methane emissions generated.

Compared to food in production, transportation and processing

Emperor carbon dioxide,

Methane is a greenhouse gas with a stronger heating effect.

EPA data shows,

Food garbage is the United States

The most common landfills and incineration materials,

Occupy urban waste landfill respectively

And 24%and 22%of the incineration processing volume.

Reduce food waste,

Not only can it improve food safety,

Improve productivity and economic efficiency,

It can also promote resources and energy conservation,

So as to slow climate change.

Swipe up to read references

[1] China's urban greenhouse gas work group. Chinese product full life cycle greenhouse gas emissions coefficient set (2022) [R], Beijing: 2022. http://lca.cityGhg.com/

[2] EPA, From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste [R], 2018. 2018.

[3] Hannah Ritchie, Food Waste is Responsible for 6% of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions [eb/OL], 2020.

[4] POORE J, NEMECEK T. Reducing Food's Environmental Impacts Through Producers and Consuamers [J]. Science, 360.

[5] Farming First, Africa Preventing Food Loss and Waste [EB/OL], 2019. https://farmingfirst.org/2019/04/18874/? MSCLKID=F1197785AEC8DF38A5B125F4DA25F4DA

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