No planet, No food, No life

Why is climate change?

We’re facing with climate change which is one of the most serious issues in the world. How climate change affects you depends on who you are and where you live. Some are suffered from extreme weather events such as flood, drought, and typhoon, others feel threatened by rising sea levels. The main driver of climate change is the emission of greenhouse gases, most importantly carbon dioxide and methane. But just imagine for a second: “why the greenhouse gases are released”. If you’re thinking about power plants, transportation or industry, it wouldn’t turn out just as I wanted. Of course, all of them are right actually, but how about FOOD?

According to the assessment by UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 20.4% of all global greenhouse gases come from agriculture and land, and 6.7% of them from food waste.

Animal agriculture is said to cause three serious issues. Firstly, it’s releasing high amount of greenhouse gas, which results from animals and their manure. Second one is deforestation. We destroy the forest in order to grow food for live stocks or to create farm for cattle, which means not only they do destruct the habitats for endangered species but they also release carbon dioxide which plants and trees were about to absorb for us, and last one is throwing out nitrous oxide in the process of growing food for livestock. One of the biggest livestock crops, corns is especially reliant on carbon-chemical emitting fertilizer.

Moreover, when it comes to food waste, by assembling all of them, we can form a country which is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, following China and the US.

Food waste doesn’t happen at certain place and stage, but every country contributes to food waste at every stage: from food producers, to food chain stakeholder, food industries, retailers and consumers, and it’s also varied region by region.

In this way, the matter “climate change” is more strongly related to food and food waste than we expected.

So, what should we do in order to prevent food waste and change the world better?

A country aims to solve the global issue

There’s a country who is combatting with the food waste problems; it is JAPAN. Japan is one of the biggest countries in the world though, how’s the situation of food waste actually?

According to the statistics in April 2020 presented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of the Environment of the Japanese government, food loss and waste in Japan in 2017 was approximately 6.12 million tons. 3.28 million tons came from the food manufacturing industry, food service and other businesses, whereas 2.84 million tons came from households.

There are several factors driving food waste inside of Japan, one of them is the one-third rule by businesses. This practice forces wholesalers to deliver food products to retailers within the first third of the period between production until the “best-before date”. If delivery is not conducted within the deadline, retailers can refuse products from wholesalers. In other words, this forces wholesalers to discard perfectly edible foods.

Japan hadn’t taken any concrete actions for a long time, however on May 24 2019, a law for food waste was officially introduced by the Japanese parliament. The law aims to create attention to the food loss issues in Japan, and to improve resources to food banks.

Since then, Japan has started fighting food waste. From the government to big industry, and of course individuals, they implement own solutions and sometimes do together. As a result, the amount of food waste is decreasing gradually every year (in 2018, Japanese government estimated 6 million tons food were thrown out, which was 0.12 million tons less than last year.)

While many Japanese are aware of how big the food waste issue is, a new problem has been shown up recently. That is fake SDGs actions are spreading out and the term of SDGs sounds overwhelming and trend. For instance, in order to get their attentions, some businesses and organizations pretend to take actions to incorporate SDGs in their business models and management plans, and fake ethical products are on the market. We should understand the meaning correctly and corporation is responsible for telling the truth.

Many a little, makes mickle

I was talking about how big the problem of food and food loss is, but personally, I’ve never thought about it deeply and tried to change my daily life. Despite I remembered to learn our food habits had something to do with climate change and we should tackle with it as soon as possible at school, why couldn’t I take any action?

That’s because I misunderstood the actions for the planet were too small to change the world better. I was used to see vegan and vegetarian as if they did something so impossible and otherworldly. But as the time has been passed since came here, I’ve met lots of vegetarians and vegans here and additionally I’ve found myriad options for them at restaurants, cafes and supermarkets I’ve never seen in Japan. Munich taught me the most important thing: “they’re not special, not different from me”. and “many a little, makes mickle”. Let’s take actions for the future!

Bibliography

・What you need to know about food waste and climate change | University of California

・Fighting Food Waste Means Fighting Climate Change | UNFCCC

・Food and Climate Change: The Best & Worst Foods For The Planet (foodrevolution.org)

・Fight climate change by preventing food waste | Stories | WWF (worldwildlife.org)

・食品ロス量（平成30年度推計値）の公表：農林水産省 (maff.go.jp)

・Japan’s food waste problems and solutions | Sustainability from Japan – Zenbird