you do you think of leftovers after a
yummy Thanksgiving meal or scraps after
cooking I know that when I first heard
the phrase I thought of the carton of
strawberries at the back of my fridge
that I had to throw out because they
were old and nobody had eaten them and
food waste is all of these things but so
much more approximately two point nine
trillion pounds of food is wasted every
single year and when I first heard this
number I was like sure it’s a big number
but in the grand scheme of things how
big of a number is it well it turns out
it’s about a third of the food produced
for human consumption so a third of the
food we make we throw out and that’s
about the weight of four thousand Empire
State buildings or 7 million blue whales
who wants to throw away seven million
blue whales and anyways it can be kind
of difficult to understand global food
waste on a global scale
so let me put it within the context of
our own country in the u.s. seventy
billion pounds of food is wasted every
single year that’s about 300 pounds per
person and there are a number of
environmental issues that go along with
food waste one of the most surprising is
with regards to our own atmosphere food
waste accounts for the largest portion
of us methane emissions and to put the
destructive power of methane into
context
methane is 23 times more damaging to the
atmosphere than co2 so if we reduce food
waste we reduce methane emissions there
are also issues with regards to how we
dispose of our waste and our landfill
systems ok let me ask you all question
how long do you think it takes for a
head of lettuce to biodegrade in a
landfill I want you all to come up with
an answer in your head and keep it there
got it
ok well recently archaeologists have
been digging around in landfills and
they found heads of lettuce that were 25
years old yes you heard me right 25
years
old and they also found newspapers with
headlines about the Korean War which
ended 65 years ago and the print was
perfectly legible and before learning
this I like probably most of you thought
landfills were just one giant compost
pile when in reality they’re more
similar to King Tut’s tomb than a
compost pile and this is because
landfills don’t biodegrade food they
mummify it and after learning about
methane gas and the mummification of our
landfills
I wondered well how exactly is food
wasted and the three of the most common
ways food is wasted is over stock
displays the expectation of cosmetic
perfection and a misunderstanding about
sell-by dates over stock displays is a
problem because stores believe that
customers are more likely to buy food if
it’s from a fully stocked display they
want to create this illusion of infinite
abundance of perfect food so every time
they get a new shipment they throw away
the oldest and ugliest food and they
replace it with the pretty and the new
food and that goes along with the second
most common way food is wasted the
expectation of cosmetic perfection
affects something called B stock and B
stock is food there’s not the right size
shape or color and even though B stock
is perfectly fine for consumption most
commonly it’s just thrown away or left
on harvested and the need for cosmetic
perfection is so ingrained into American
society that are automatic harvest
harvest machines filter out B stock and
the third of the most common ways food
is wasted is a misunderstanding of
sell-by dates or anything like that like
used by best buy and the general public
just doesn’t understand that these dates
serve to mark the date of peak freshness
not the day that these foods spoil and
this causes issues because grocery
stores fear that customers will think
that they’re selling old products and so
they pull items out of stock several
days before the
by dates and I kind of want to switch
gears and talk about some solutions now
so it’s easy to feel like this problem
is impossible to solve but other
countries are taking steps to help
reduce food waste for example France
just recently banned grocery stores from
throwing away food and instead require
them to donate it and this shows that it
is possible on a corporate and national
level to make change also there are a
couple steps that we can take as
individuals to help reduce food waste in
our own lives for example we can switch
to smaller plates to help with portion
control we can freeze our food eat
leftovers and then also before you go
grocery shopping you can check your
pantry your fridge your cabinets and
form a list so you don’t end up buying
something you’re just gonna throw away
also in your fridge try to put shorter
foods in front of the taller foods so
you don’t forget about it
also if you can try and set your fridge
to 35 degrees Fahrenheit because this
temperature is ideal and keeps food
freshest the longest and another thing
and I cannot stress this enough
do not go grocery shopping hungry
because I know when I do this I
literally want to buy everything I see
and within our own school there is a
change that we all can make when we’re
in the cafeteria try not to use the
trays because tray users end up wasting
32 percent more food than non tray users
and I’ll admit I’m by no means perfect
and I’m not asking to be either but a
big part of reducing food waste is being
aware and making small changes that add
up to a big change and in wealthy
countries like our own around 40 percent
of wasted food is wasted by consumers
like us so it is our responsibility as
conscious consumers to take action and
make the difference because we have more
power than we realize so I challenge you
to make at least one small change to
your lifestyle because any action no
matter how small can make a world of a
difference
thank you [Applause]