Sustainability

The production of food requires large quantities of resources: farmland, water, fertiliser and energy for harvesting, processing, transport and disposal. Therefore, every item of food thrown away not only means a loss of food, but also a loss of the resources that went into its production. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, around 11 million tons of food waste are produced in Germany every year, which amounts to around 78 kilograms per person.

The environmental impact of food waste is substantial. The annual greenhouse gas emissions generated by food waste are estimated at 4.4 gigatons worldwide. If this waste were a country, it would be the third largest source of greenhouse gases in the global ranking.

Every step in the life cycle of a food product causes greenhouse gases. Animal products in particular have a poor carbon footprint: one kilogram of beef, for example, produces 14,100 grams of CO2 equivalents. Although meat only accounts for a small proportion of food waste, it is responsible for almost half of the greenhouse gases caused by it. If this food is thrown away, the environmental pollution has been in vain.

Around a third of the world’s food is wasted along the entire supply chain – that’s 1.3 billion tons of food every year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The majority of this, over 930 million tons according to the UN, is lost at the end of the chain – in private households, restaurants and the like.

This global loss also has ethical implications: There are currently around 8.2 billion people living on the planet. The Global Hunger Index has identified around 735 million of these people as undernourished in 2023, even though studies show that a holistically sustainable and efficient food production system could feed far more people than there are currently on Earth. So where does it go wrong?

In developing countries, agricultural land is often used for food exports to high-income countries or is designated for the cultivation of animal feed and biofuels, which restricts the local population’s ability to produce their own food. In industrialised countries, on the other hand, people are used to an oversupply of food, which leads to a careless attitude towards it.

The resulting overproduction is devastating and at the same time global demand for resources such as grain is growing. This leads to rising prices for staple foods, which hits low-income countries particularly hard. And last but not least, many of these countries do not have sufficient infrastructure: a lack of transport, storage and cooling facilities means that large quantities of food spoil too soon.

In its “National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste”, the German Government has declared the goal of halving food waste in Germany at trade and consumer level by 2030, as well as reducing food losses along the production and supply chain. This plan is based on the Sustainable Development Goals, which all members of the United Nations have committed to.

Consumers who are aware of the labour and resources that are needed to produce food are more likely to value it and act in a more sustainable way. This change in behaviour at a personal level can be encouraged by a supportive food environment, e.g. in the supermarket, in a restaurant or on holiday.

It is therefore a joint responsibility to actively counteract food waste. Achieving this would mean a 10 per cent reduction, i.e. 17 million tons of CO2 equivalents, in greenhouse gas emissions caused by food consumption in Germany. The area of land required for food production in the country could also be reduced by 4 million hectares – an area that among other things then provides sufficient space for wildlife. After all, food waste, e.g. through deforestation and harmful cultivation and breeding methods, also poses a major threat to the biodiversity of animals and plants.