Food Tank is raising awareness of food waste to commemorate this year’s World Food Day, a global celebration of the founding of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held on October 16. In an article published in the Des Moines Register, Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, discusses the issue of food waste and steps being taken to confront it.
The FAO was created with the goals of ensuring adequate food and nutrition for the health and strength of all people. At least 800 million people across the world go hungry every day. However, the FAO estimates that if we managed to eat all the food we currently waste, we could feed every hungry person in the world—four times over.
Nierenberg’s article discusses organizations, from the national to the local level and across the political spectrum, that are addressing food waste. These include groups that are diverting edible food from landfills and municipalities that are using waste to generate energy and meet a growing demand for quality compost.
Fighting food waste is also important at home. Whether it is cooking edible parts that are typically tossed, like beet greens, preserving and reusing leftovers, or creating compost, everyone can combat food waste.
