When we think about food waste, our minds usually turn to the people those discarded meals could feed. But that’s not the only consequence. Researchers at the University of Texas uncovered another problem with excessive food waste: wasted energy. The energy it takes to get food from farms, production plants, and the wild to our plates is huge: It makes up an entire 10 percent of the nation’s energy use. And a good chunk of that energy—enough to power the state of Washington for almost an entire year—goes to producing the food that ends up in the garbage.
While the amount of energy lost is enough to make your stomach hurt, solutions to the food waste problem are abundant. They range from new technology within the food industry to simple changes you can apply at home
I – Word Understanding
Discarded – disposed / thrown away
Chunk – a large part of something
II – Have Your Say
A. Why do we waste food? For industrialized countries, more food is wasted as compared to the developing countries. In addition, less food is wasted at the consumer level for developing countries.
B. Food that is wasted has several environmental, financial and social impacts.
What are these impacts and what can we and the government do?
c. Please share you opinion on these proposed solutions to minimize food waste:
a. Breathable transport containers w/ sensors
b. Cutting portion sizes
c. Improve consumer behavior
d. New technology for refrigerators
Apps
