Study Finds Food Waste Is Third-Largest Greenhouse Gas Source

A new study from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization found that the 1.3 billion tons of food wasted every year make it one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

1 minute read

September 12, 2013, 7:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj

Reducing food waste can have myriad social, economic, and environmental benefits. But a new report has put a number to the impact on global warming that uneaten food has every year. "The world throws away one-third of food produced yearly, making food waste the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions behind those produced by the U.S. and China, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday," writes Ricardo Lopez. "[T]he U.N. estimated the carbon footprint of the problem is equivalent to 3.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year."

"All of us -- farmers and fishers, food processors and supermarkets, local and national governments, individual consumers -- must make changes at every link of the human food chain to prevent food wastage from happening in the first place, and re-use or recycle it when we can't," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

FULL STORY: One-third of food wasted worldwide harms environment, U.N. says

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 in Los Angeles Times

Environment Infrastructure World Food Waste Greenhouse Gas Emissions

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