Food for Thought
In a bid to help give back to the community and reduce the amount of wastage that goes into landfill. We have partnered up with John Zarb who will be composting our food waste to use on his beautiful allotment.
Our Plant, Your Food
How does my food impact climate change? Let’s take a closer look.
What is climate change?
Climate change in a nutshell means long-term changes to the Earth’s weather patterns and temperatures.
The resources we use to fuel modern life: to heat our homes, clothe ourselves, travel where we need to be, and get food onto our plates – contribute to greenhouse gases being released into the Earth’s atmosphere. These gases – carbon dioxide being a key one – release heat and change the Earth’s temperature, weather and the climate we experience.
These increasing temperatures are leading to rising sea levels, flooding, wildfires, polar ice melting and extreme weather events that put habitats, wildlife and humans at risk.
Climate change buzzwords
What do these buzzwords mean?
Greenhouse gases
These are gases – like carbon dioxide and methane – which release heat into our atmosphere. This then warms up the Earth’s temperature.
Carbon and greenhouse gas emissions
The amount of gases released into the atmosphere – for example, by the use of fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide into the environment, or when food waste rots and releases methane gas.
Carbon footprint
The amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by day-to-day activities. Around food, these might be during the production of our food, and the transportation of our food.
Food waste
Food that is wasted, lost or uneaten along all parts of the supply chain - from farm, to production, to supermarkets and in our homes.
“36 MILLION
Tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions could be prevented by saving food from our bins in UK homes.”
How does my food feed climate change?
You may have heard that food has a big environmental impact. But how does the odd overripe banana or stale loaf of bread being binned harm our planet? Let’s get into the impact throwing food away has on the planet.
When looking at why food waste harms the environment, it’s important to look at the whole lifecycle of our food: from farm, to fork, to the bin. Each stage in the journey of our food draws resources from our planet and produces greenhouse gas emissions, therefore contributing to climate change.
If we can make sure only the food we are going to eat reaches our homes, and no good food ends up in the bin, we could save the emissions created producing that food from ever needing to be created in the first place.
Ensuring you use up all of the food you buy and let none of it go to waste is a key way to reduce your carbon footprint and help tackle climate change.
Carbon emissions & our food
Follow the carbon emission journey of our food to our plates:
The land we use to grow our food
This could range from deforestation (removing trees which take carbon out of the atmosphere) to a farmer ploughing a field ready to plant crops (which releases greenhouse gases).
Growing our food
Fertilisers, animal feed, tractors and farming equipment, harvesting, transportation: there’s an awful lot of effort, time and resources involved in producing our food, across the world.
Processing our food
For example, turning potatoes into oven chips or wheat into bread, in factories.
Getting foods to shops, markets or to your door
Whether you shop online, at the supermarket or your local market: the food you buy has been transported there – most likely from around the world.
Preparing your food at home
Cooking our food also has an impact: fuelling our fridges and freezers, ovens and microwaves.
Throwing your food away
When we throw food away, it rots and releases methane, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere: whether that’s in our compost bin, food caddy or landfill. Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide.
In the UK, less than 1% of carbon emissions related to food comes from this final step: when it ends up in the bin. But, a large amount of greenhouse gases has already been released during the journey of food from farm to your plate - only for it to end up in the bin.
“EVERYDAY is Earth day at The FTC.”
Take Action Today!
We know that small and positive changes, can make a huge difference to our planet. 🌍 With that in mind, what better way to honour #EarthDay by picking up some simple habits to save food from landfill?
Here are 3 top tips:
Check your fridge temperature is at 5 degrees C or below.
This simple change will make sure your food is being stored at the best temperature.
Make a swap-tion!
Yes we wrote that right. Swap some of your fruit and veggies from fresh to frozen, you can defrost when needed or cook from frozen, depending on the packaging information. It will last far longer in the freezer and will save you money too.
Love your leftovers
Sometimes we cook a little more than we need (check out our portion planner to cook the right amount, link in bio) and have some leftover bits, pop your meal in a sealed container, store in the fridge, then heat up in the microwave until piping hot and enjoy as another meal or a snack within 1-2 days of cooking. Simple!
If you are already doing these things, hoorah! 🎉
Find support in our food-saving community
Get involved with a digital community and find like-minded people who are doing their bit to make the most of food and save money. Love Food, Hate Waste share lots of practical ideas, food hacks, leftover food recipes and much more on our social media accounts and on this website.
Follow them and join in the conversation today! Share your great food saving tips with us too - tag our social accounts and use #LoveFoodHateWaste.
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@EARTHDAY.ORG #EarthDay #foodwastewarriors #composting #SaveFood #LoveOurEarth #TopTips #GoGreen #Leftovers #FoodStorage #Swaption #OnlyOneEarth
