Taking on Water Challenge: Week 2 – Waste Less Food
This guest post is the fifth from Wendy Pabich in a series on the global water crisis. Wendy is the author of Taking on Water: How One Water Expert Challenged Her Inner Hypocrite, Reduced Her Water Footprint (Without Sacrificing a Toasty Shower), and Found Nirvana. She holds a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Parsons Water Resources Laboratory at MIT.
It takes tremendous volumes of water to produce our food. In fact, in the U.S., agriculture accounts for some 80 percent of our country’s consumptive water use. This means that when we waste food, we waste water. A recent study in the U.K. calculated that embedded water in food waste within the country accounted for one and a half times the volume of water people actually used in their homes.
Estimates of U.S. food waste range from 14 to 50 percent of all food produced for domestic sale and consumption. Much of this food is tossed in the garbage because it is past its sell-by date (which is often mistakenly believed to represent the date food should be eaten by), not as fresh as it once was, or because consumers purchased more food than they could eat and allowed food to spoil.
The implications of our carelessness are rather stunning: these foods end up in landfills, where they produce untold amounts of potent methane, a gas twenty-three times more effective in trapping heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. (Indeed, landfills account for 34 percent of our total methane emissions.) Wasted food also means wasted money, with the average family of four losing $590 each year to food waste. We are also unnecessarily depleting soils and using tons of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides for foods that are never eaten. It is estimated that fully one-quarter of U.S. water consumption is used to produce this wasted food.
Finally, as estimated in a study by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the energy required to produce this discarded food is on the order of three hundred million barrels of oil a year. As reported in New Scientist magazine, this is (now hold onto your hat!) more than is extracted annually from the oil and gas reserves off our shores.
You can change this by making a shopping list, buying only what you need, using up what’s in the fridge and the pantry (with lots of creative recipes available to use up wilting vegetables), and serving smaller amounts. For food that does go to waste, compost it to return nutrients and energy to the soil rather than sending it to the landfill, where it will decompose to methane and carbon dioxide, further contributing to global change.
By not wasting food this week, you can reduce your water footprint by about 667 gallons. By continuing this practice, you can save nearly 35,000 gallons of water in a year.
Follow these links for more discussion about:
The Implications of Food Waste
The Water Footprint of Food Waste in the U.K.
Ideas for Using Up Foods on the Edge:
9 Foods You Can Bring Back from the Dead
Recipes for Leftovers
A little off axis but still fun.
Reader Comments
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I am extremely frugal with water in my home. Me and my doggie prolly only "directly" use about 100 gallons per month (even tho water is part of my rent).
It is staggering to see how much water I consume for food, manufacturing and distribution of products I purchase, utilities I consume and the such.
Your posts are empowering me with the ability to become a bit more frugal in regards to more intelligent water consumption planning (and prolly reducing my carbon footprint a bit too).
keep up the great work!
Rich
Thank you! It is astounding when you begin to understand how our direct water use is only the tip of the iceberg--the majority of water we each use is done so indirectly, embedded in the foods, goods and services we consume. You might be interested in trying one of the water footprint calculators available online, like the one from the Water Footprint Network (http://goo.gl/FbPxt). You might also enjoy my book, Taking on Water (http://goo.gl/BeN8W), which chronicles my personal journey to reduce my water footprint. Thanks for reading!
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