The Pope, Food Waste and Green House Gasses

I got a call last month from a graduate student who wanted to research how the Food Bank helps reduce greenhouse gasses because we keep food waste out of landfills.  Then this week the Pope made the health news when in his weekly address he talked about food waste.  He said, “Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of the poor and the hungry.”

The average American throws away $390 worth of food a year, according to the US Department of Agriculture.  I am guilty of doing that.  We just buy more than we need and when it sits around too long it eventually get’s thrown away.  I know it is bad for our family budget, but I never thought about it being bad for the planet.  Food in landfills is the number one producer of green house gases.  And I thought that driving was bad, but decaying produce is worse.

The Pope’s point was not lost on me, but I know it is hard to take food you are not eating in your house and give it to someone hungry.  So it is going to take more of an effort on my part to buy less and make sure we are eating what we have before we buy more.

It’s not like I live far from the grocery store.  I could walk there if I were a little less lazy.  There is a man that lives down the street from me who I don’t think has a car because he walks to and from the store everyday.  I know I would eat less if I had to carry home what I purchased at the store, rather than driving it home.

So now it is not just better for my body to eat less and be more thoughtful in my consumption, but it is better for the planet and now that the Pope has gotten in on this line of thinking I guess it is better for my soul.  I know that eating less and being less wasteful is better for my fellow man.  For the good of the planet and my future generations I am committing myself to being less wasteful with food.  My mother always told us that we should leave something on our plate.  I think it was her way of trying to get us to eat less.  Rather than leaving something on the plate we should just put less on it to begin with.