14 DAY TRIAL // According to a report launched by the United Nations and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a third of what the food industry is offering us every year ends up in landfills for no logical reason. Our consumerism along with the gaps in the system support a great loss: 1.3 billion tonnes of food which, instead of going to the needy, is left to rot in dumps.
According to an older study, elaborated in 2009, while taking into consideration 1,600 households, an average Australian family throws out $600 worth of food annually.
This picture is available worldwide, in most of the developed countries. In fact, researchers managed to indicate a link between our lifestyle and the amount of resources we waste.
In 2007 the irresponsible attitude displayed by the British people made the Waste & Resource Action Programme (WRAP) introduce the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign, in order to decrease the UK's growing food wastage.
It appears that people who live by themselves and the individuals who benefit from a higher income are prone to take what they have been offered for granted.
This argument goes beyond the rotten apple in our fridge. When people are wasting food, they are also failing in preserving energy and water.
According to the experts from the OzHarvest, one kilo of potatoes requires 500 litres of water, one kilo of white rice, 2000 litres of water, each kilo of beef no less than 50,000 litres. Also, the processes behind the food industry rely on a tremendous amount of energy.
Mother Nature struggles to spread its resources to its 7 billion inhabitants. While developed countries highlight their negligence while conserving their supplies, the FAO announced that 925 million people struggled to survive and put food on the table in 2010.
Furthermore, wasting food, water and energy affects the environment, through a significant amount of greenhouse gas which reaches the atmosphere.
It seems that the entire industry is keen on feeding our consumerism. Scientists blame the presence of plastic bags, distributed for free in supermarkets, which continue to nourish our shopaholic behavior.
Linking our behavior with the impact it has upon the environment might provide an effective solution to this problem.
“We continue to waste an enormous amount of food and, even though people feel guilty about it, the amount they waste doesn’t correlate to their stated desire to protect the environment,” concluded Richard Denniss from FAO.