How to Turn the Tables on Food Waste | Dana Gunders | TED

Summary

The speaker addresses the staggering issue of global food waste, highlighting its environmental impact, including methane emissions and land use, which contribute to climate change. They emphasize that 1 billion meals are wasted daily, costing $1 trillion and causing a significant greenhouse gas footprint. Solutions are presented, such as Cold Hubs in Nigeria, which use solar power to reduce spoilage, and 'Too Good To Go', an app that discounts unsold food. The speaker calls for systemic changes, policy support, and individual actions like meal planning and better understanding of food labels to combat this problem.

Takeaways

• 🍽️ Globally, 1 billion meals go uneaten every day, contributing to hunger and food waste worth $1 trillion.
• 🌱 The food waste industry has a climate impact five times greater than the aviation industry, largely due to methane emissions from rotting food in landfills.
• 🌍 By 2050, it's projected that we'll need 50% more food than we had in 2010, raising questions about land use and deforestation for agriculture.
• 🔎 Solutions to reduce food waste include better management across the food supply chain, with prevention being the most cost-effective strategy.
• 🌐 The UN has set a goal to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030, which could have significant environmental benefits.
• 💡 Innovative solutions like solar-powered cold rooms in Nigeria (Cold Hubs) and last-minute discount apps (Too Good To Go) are reducing food waste and benefiting farmers and consumers.
• 🏢 Large food service companies like Compass Group are implementing waste tracking and portion size adjustments to reduce food waste by up to 50%.
• 💼 Investment in scaling successful food waste reduction solutions is needed, with Refed estimating $18 billion for the US alone could yield a 4:1 return on investment.
• 🏡 Policy changes, such as laws in Ecuador, Japan, and France that restrict food from going to landfills, encourage composting and reduce waste.
• 🛒 Consumers can reduce food waste by shopping with lists, planning meals, loving leftovers, freezing food, and using their senses instead of relying solely on labels.

Q & A

Why is the speaker obsessed with the amount of food we waste?

The speaker is obsessed with food waste because it is a significant contributor to climate change, uses vast amounts of resources, and is a solvable problem that could help feed the hungry and reduce environmental impact.

How big is the scale of food waste as described in the script?

The scale of food waste is immense, with a farm the size of the United States producing enough to fill 100 tractor trailers every minute, all year long, which ends up in landfills, contributing to methane emissions.

What is the environmental impact of food waste in terms of greenhouse gases?

Food waste has a greenhouse gas footprint five times larger than the entire aviation industry, with methane being a significant contributor from rotting food in landfills.

How much food is wasted globally every day, and what is its economic value?

Globally, 1 billion meals are wasted every day, which is more than a meal per person for everyone facing hunger, and it's worth $1 trillion.

What is the projected food demand by 2050, and how does it relate to food waste?

By 2050, it's projected that we'll need about 50% more food than we had in 2010. Reducing food waste could help meet about 20% of this gap, emphasizing the importance of managing food better.

What are some reasons behind food waste according to the script?

Reasons for food waste include the invisibility of the problem due to lack of measurement, cheap food and disposal costs, lack of infrastructure for proper storage, over-purchasing, and concerns about food safety leading to premature disposal.

How does the Nigerian company Cold Hubs address food waste?

Cold Hubs builds solar-powered cold rooms in markets and farms, extending the shelf life of food and allowing farmers to sell their produce for longer, thus reducing waste and increasing income.

What is the Too Good To Go app, and how does it help reduce food waste?

Too Good To Go is an app that allows restaurants and grocery stores to offer discounts on products that would otherwise be thrown away, reducing waste and providing value to both businesses and customers.

What steps is the speaker suggesting individuals can take to reduce food waste?

Individuals can reduce food waste by shopping with lists and planning meals, loving leftovers, freezing food to extend its life, using up items before restocking, and understanding food labels to avoid unnecessary waste.

Why is it important for consumers to be less accepting of food waste?

Consumers are the largest source of food waste, and changing cultural attitudes towards food waste can lead to significant reductions in overall waste and contribute to a more sustainable food system.

What is the UN Sustainable Development Goal related to food waste, and what is its target year?

The UN Sustainable Development Goal related to food waste is to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030.

Outlines

00:00

🌱 The Global Issue of Food Waste

The speaker discusses their 15-year-long obsession with the massive scale of food waste. They illustrate the problem by comparing the size of a farm producing enough food to fill 100 tractor trailers every minute to the entire United States. This food doesn't reach consumers but ends up rotting in landfills, producing methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The speaker emphasizes the scale of the issue, noting that 1 billion meals are wasted daily, worth $1 trillion, and having a climate impact five times greater than aviation. They explain that the problem is systemic, involving the entire food supply chain, and that reducing food waste could significantly help meet future food demands and reduce environmental harm.

05:00

🌐 Solutions to Combat Food Waste

The speaker outlines various solutions to reduce food waste, emphasizing the need for better management across the food supply chain. They mention that while it's not rocket science, it requires systemic changes. The speaker's organization, Refed, has identified over 80 solutions, prioritizing prevention to avoid food waste in the first place. They highlight examples such as Cold Hubs in Nigeria, which uses solar-powered cold rooms to extend the shelf life of food, and the app Too Good To Go, which connects businesses with consumers to sell surplus food at a discount. They also mention the efforts of Compass Group, which has reduced waste by up to 50% in some sites through waste tracking and portion control. The speaker calls for increased investment and policy changes to scale these solutions, such as providing incentives for businesses and creating laws that restrict food from going to landfills.

10:01

🛒 Practical Tips for Reducing Food Waste

The speaker offers practical advice for individuals to reduce food waste in their daily lives. They suggest starting with mindful shopping, using shopping lists, and planning meals. They encourage people to love leftovers, as they represent a 'free lunch,' and to utilize their freezers to extend the life of food. The speaker also advises using up food before restocking and learning to interpret food labels correctly, relying on senses rather than expiration dates to determine if food is still good. They emphasize that these strategies are not new but are based on traditional practices that can be passed down to future generations. The speaker concludes by stating that reducing food waste is a crucial part of addressing the climate crisis and ensuring that food is used sustainably and consumed.

Keywords

💡Food Waste

Food waste refers to the discarding or loss of food, which is a significant issue highlighted in the video. It is defined as the squandering of food on a massive scale, from individual meals to entire truckloads of products that are deemed too close to their expiration dates. The video emphasizes the environmental impact of food waste, such as the methane emissions from rotting food in landfills, contributing to climate change. The script mentions that globally, 1 billion meals go uneaten every day, illustrating the scale of the problem.

💡Landfills

Landfills are waste disposal sites where trash is deposited and left to decompose. In the context of the video, landfills are identified as the third largest source of methane in the US, with nearly 60% of this methane resulting from food rotting. This highlights how food waste in landfills contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change.

💡Greenhouse Gas Footprint

The greenhouse gas footprint refers to the total amount of greenhouse gases produced, directly or indirectly, by an activity or organization. The video points out that food waste has a substantial climate impact, with its greenhouse gas footprint being five times that of the aviation industry. This underscores the environmental cost of food waste and the urgency to address it.

💡Food Supply Chain

The food supply chain encompasses all activities involved in the production, processing, distribution, and sale of food. The video discusses the need to manage food better across the supply chain to reduce waste. It mentions that the food wasted globally is worth $1 trillion, indicating the economic inefficiency and potential for improvement within the supply chain.

💡Prevention

Prevention, in the context of the video, refers to strategies aimed at stopping food waste before it occurs. The speaker emphasizes that prevention is the most effective and cost-efficient approach to reducing food waste, both environmentally and financially. Examples from the script include measures to ensure that extra food does not get produced in the first place.

💡Solutions

Solutions in the video refer to the various methods and strategies that can be implemented to reduce food waste. The speaker mentions over 80 solutions identified by the organization Refed, which can help in reducing waste. Examples include prevention, donation, and recycling methods, showcasing a multifaceted approach to tackling the issue.

💡Cold Hubs

Cold Hubs is a Nigerian company mentioned in the video that builds solar-powered cold rooms in markets and farms. This innovation extends the shelf life of food, allowing farmers more time to sell their produce and reducing waste. It serves as an example of a practical solution that has saved thousands of tons of food and increased farmer incomes.

💡Too Good To Go

Too Good To Go is an app highlighted in the video that allows restaurants and grocery stores to discount food at the last minute before it would otherwise be thrown away. This not only reduces waste but also provides businesses with extra revenue and customers with discounts, demonstrating a win-win solution to food waste.

💡Composting

Composting is the process of decomposing organic waste into nutrient-rich soil conditioner. The video discusses composting as a recycling method for food waste, which can improve soil quality and sequester carbon. It is presented as an environmentally friendly alternative to landfilling food waste.

💡Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior refers to the actions of individuals when they purchase, use, and dispose of food. The video emphasizes that consumers are a significant source of food waste and suggests changes in behavior, such as better meal planning and using leftovers, to reduce waste. It calls for a cultural shift towards less acceptance of food waste.

💡Sustainable Development Goal

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) mentioned in the video is a global commitment to halve food loss and waste by 2030. The video outlines the potential impact of achieving this goal, including avoiding deforestation for agriculture and reducing biodiversity loss, highlighting the interconnectedness of food waste with broader environmental and social issues.

Highlights

The speaker has been obsessed with the amount of food we waste, highlighting the scale of the problem.

A metaphorical farm the size of the United States is used to illustrate the scale of food production and waste.

Food waste produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, contributing significantly to climate change.

Globally, 1 billion meals go uneaten daily, equivalent to a meal per person for everyone facing hunger.

Food waste is valued at $1 trillion, emphasizing the economic impact of this issue.

Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the US, with food waste being a major contributor.

The energy and resources used in food production contribute to the climate impact of food waste.

Land use for food production is a significant concern, with projections for a 50% increase in food needed by 2050.

Reducing food waste by 20% could meet a significant portion of the future food demand.

Various reasons contribute to food waste, from lack of measurement to infrastructure challenges.

Fixing food waste is solvable and involves managing our food better.

Refed, the organization the speaker works for, has identified over 80 solutions to reduce food waste.

Prevention is the priority in managing food waste, as it offers the most significant environmental and financial benefits.

Cold Hubs, a Nigerian company, extends food shelf life with solar-powered cold rooms, reducing waste and increasing farmer incomes.

Too Good To Go, an app, helps reduce waste by discounting food items before they are thrown away.

Compass Group implements strategies like tracking waste and offering smaller portions to reduce food waste.

The UN sustainable development goal aims to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030.

Despite the potential, progress in reducing food waste has been slow, with insufficient attention and investment.

The speaker suggests that for the US alone, it could take $18 billion to fully scale solutions to reduce food waste.

Food businesses and policy changes are needed to engage and prioritize the reduction of food waste.

Consumers play a significant role in food waste, and the speaker provides five tips for managing food better at home.

Reducing food waste is described as low-hanging fruit in tackling the climate crisis, emphasizing its importance.

Transcripts

for the past 15 years I have been

obsessed with the amount of food we bed

this makes me like the last person

anyone wants to have dinner

with inevitably we're sitting there at

the end of the meal they're pushing food

around their plate they don't want to

eat and they're looking at me with some

awkward

excuse and I say look we can't eat our

way out of this this is a systems

problem and it's just way too big how

big well picture a farm it's the size of

the entire United States it uses three

times as much water as the whole country

and it grows food all year long and when

harvested produces enough to fill 100

tractor trailers every minute all year

long those trucks then drive fly and

Float all over the world except instead

of going somewhere to be eaten they go

straight to a landfill where the food

rots and produces methane a powerful

greenhouse gas seems crazy right but

that's effectively what we're doing from

science experiments in the back of our

refrigerators to truckloads of product

that are too close to some arbitrary

expiration date globally 1 billion meals

go une eaten every single day that's

more than a meal per person for everyone

on this planet who faces hunger not to

mention it's worth $1 trillion

and this whole ridiculous exercise has

five times the greenhouse gas footprint

of the entire aviation

industry now I know it's not obvious why

food waste would have such a big climate

impact so let me explain first landfills

landfills are the third largest source

of methane in the US and almost 60% of

that methane is coming from food rotting

and as big as that is it's dwarfed by

the huge amount of energy and resources

it takes to grow Harvest transport cool

cook food and get it to our tables and

there's an even larger reason and that's

land use we are looking ahead at a

future in 2050 where it's projected

we'll need about 50% more food than we

had in 2010 and the question is where is

that food going to come from are we

going to cut down more rainforests to

grow it or are we going to use the food

that we already have researchers

estimate about

20% of that Gap could be met by simply

wasting less when I first came across

these numbers I thought to myself gosh

this is the dumbest

problem and I wanted to know why and it

turns out there are all sorts of reasons

that are very different for a strawberry

farm in California than a market in

Africa but to give you a sense here are

a few one is uh we don't measure it so

it's invisible and as we all know you

don't manage what you don't measure

also in some places food is relatively

cheap and the fees to throw it away are

even cheaper in other places there's

simply not the infrastructure to keep

food

cold at times we're worried about

running out because God forbid I don't

have enough stuffed mushrooms for

everyone and then at other times we're

worried about it making us sick when in

doubt throw it out right and then

there's my seven-year-old son who begs

me for a peanut butter jelly sandwich in

the morning and comes home in the

afternoon with his lunchbox completely

untouched and when I ask him what he ate

for lunch he says oh I just talked now I

don't know what you do about that

one but overall fixing food waste is not

rocket science it's really just about

managing our food better and it's

solvable there's a lot we can do in our

own lives and I'll get to that in a bit

um and there is a lot we can do across

the food supply chain at refed the

organization where I work that is

entirely dedicated to reducing the

amount of food we waste we have

identified over 80 solutions that can

help many of them are about prevention

about making sure that extra food does

not occur in the first place which is

really our priority because prevention

gives you the most bang for buck both

environmentally and financially after

that we look at donating food and only

when that's been exhausted at feeding it

to animals composting it or or other

recycling methods there are so many

successful examples out there of these

Solutions one is a Nigerian company

called cold hubs they build solar

powerered cold rooms in markets and

farms and in places that don't have

electricity this extends shelf life

dramatically giving Farmers more time to

sell their product and therefore the

ability to fetch a better price they

have saved thousands of tons of food so

far all while increasing farmer incomes

by 60%

another is too good to go it's an app

that restaurants and grocery stores can

use to Discount product at the last

minute before they might otherwise throw

it out businesses they get extra Revenue

customers score a deal and it has spread

like wildfire now in 17 countries they

saved over 100 million meals last year

alone from a different angle there's

Compass Group it's the largest Food

Service Company in the world and they

are busy trying a lot of unsexy things

like tracking their waste experimenting

with smaller containers on buffets or

offering different size portions so that

there's a smaller option if you say

don't want a massive burrito they've had

a lot of success across the world even

decreasing waste up to 50% in some of

their largest

sites these are just a few of the many

solutions that are being tried and

tested some are high-tech some are low

many are win-win and they're starting to

work but it's not enough and it's not

fast enough countries and companies from

around the world have signed on to the

UN sustainable development goal to cut

food loss and waste in half by

2030 the impact of this goal would be

enormous it could avoid converting an

area of land the size of Argentina into

agriculture saving onethird of the

biodiversity that were projected to lose

and avoiding as many missions is taking

every single car in the US and Canada

off the road wood yet despite that

incredible potential and some beacons of

progress overall we are barely moving

the

needle and unlike the energy and

transportation sectors attention and

investment into food waste have been

completely in commensurate with the

opportunity it

presents there are so many solutions

that are working out out there let's

inject the funds to really scale them

cold hubs has been quite successful

across Nigeria but we need that solution

in every Market without electricity in

every country waste tracking last minute

sale apps and other Technologies are

demonstrating they work let's provide

incentives so that every food business

has those at their fingertips and we

need investment to spark new innovation

as well at refed we estimate that for

the us alone it could take $18

billion to fully scale Solutions a large

investment

but when you are throwing hundreds of

billions of food away it actually can

have a 4 to1 return on that investment

and other incredible benefits like

providing 4 billion additional meals in

food donations creating 60,000 jobs and

huge water and greenhouse gas savings

and because so much of the action needs

to happen across the food supply chain

we need food businesses to engage and

prioritize this work they can be double

down on streamlining their operations

and adopting new Solutions as well we

also need policy Ecuador Japan France

and 10 states across the US are just

some of the places that have laws that

restrict food from going to landfills

instead they provide infrastructure for

composting or other recycling methods

and that compost then goes on to improve

soils and even sequester carbon

potentially in addition in some of those

places they're seeing an increase in

food donations and even closer tracking

of waste these laws should be

everywhere and then there's us one of my

favorite bumper stickers says hate

traffic you are

traffic well we as consumers are

actually the largest source of food

going to waste more than grocery stores

Farms or restaurants and in the US as a

culture we have also become really numb

to it you know I could walk down the

street and throw half a sandwich on a

sidewalk and people would think I was

crazy but if I throw that same half

sandwich in a garbage can they wouldn't

think much of it we need to be less

accepting as a culture of wasting food

and we need to take steps in our own

lives as well but before I get to that

let me tell you what not to do you are

going to go out into the world now and

you are going to see food being wasted

everywhere

and you're going to want to well eat

it this is not what we're going for

people trust me I have

tried and I don't think it's what you're

going for either instead here are five

tips that you can try to manage your

food better in your own lives first

shopping shopping is really where we

commit to food and so we need to be

careful not to Overby old school things

like shopping lists and meal planning

really help and let me be frozen pizza

and takeout are totally legit as part of

your plan next as I tell my friends at

the end of dinner love your leftovers

they are the only true free lunch and

when you get sick of them you can move

on to number three which is freeze your

food your freezer is like a magic pause

button and so many things can be Frozen

that you don't think of bread milk

cheese and that half jar of pasta sauce

you didn't use next use it up in my

house this looks like my husband eating

that peanut butter and jelly sandwich

for dinner but for you it might be

whipping up a stir fry with whatever

veggies or wilting in your fridge

whatever it is be sure to shop your

fridge before you restock it and lastly

learn your labels Best Buy and enjoy by

are really just guesstimates of when

food is at its best they're not an

indication that it's gone bad so be sure

to use your senses before you toss

things these strategies are not earth

shattering they're things that many of

our parents and grandparents did

and you can be sure that my son is

learning them as well because as we

tackle this massive climate crisis

reducing food waste really is the low

hanging

fruit but no matter how sustainably we

grow that fruit it's only a good use of

resources and nutrition if we all do our

part to make sure that it actually gets

eaten thank you