Introduction
Food waste causes a devastating impact on the environment and contributes to the wastage of water. Tons of foods are not harvested and rot in the farms, while others go bad during transportation and after cooking. This is unfortunate considering that millions of people are starving around the globe due to a lack of food. Food and water security are related since freshwater is usually used for irrigation and farming. Wasting food implies that the huge volumes of water used to support the growth of crops were used inappropriately (de Amorim et al., 2018). Farming consumes nearly 70% of the freshwater to produce food.
More water is utilized in manufacturing industries and homes during the processing and preparation of food, distribution, storage, and harvesting (Morone, Papendiek & Tartiu, 2017). This paper explores how food waste and water use affect the food system, the negative effect of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment and food system, as well as how agriculture affects the environment.
Impact on the Food System
Ensuring that everyone has enough food should be prioritized while making an effort to lower the negative effects on the environment in terms of water withdrawal and emissions. It is necessary to enhance the spread of food to avoid waste, overeating, and undernourishment. Since the world population is on the rise, there is a need to establish effective measures to feed more than nine billion people by 2050 sustainably (Galanakis, 2019). This implies that it is important to save water by recycling effluent, reducing food waste, enhancing plant breeding, and promoting productivity. Improved irrigation can help enhance efficiency in the utilization of water and play a role in environmental conservation. Establishing measures to attain more crop in reduced amount of water is a major challenge that the world needs to address.
Wasting waste harms both the economy and the environment in diverse ways. Landfill of wasted food releases dangerous gases that contribute to environmental degradation. Moreover, the rising population implies that additional pressure on water resources will be created in the future. The diminishing freshwater resources suggest that effective water conservation strategies need to be prioritized to meet the rising demand (Pires et al., 2017). Failure to address the problem properly can influence more people to join millions who are already thirsty and hungry.
Most food crops comprise a huge amount of water in their composition. It implies that it is not possible to produce food without sufficient water to support their growth. Fruits and vegetables consist of more than 70% water (Galanakis, 2019). The production of meat consumes a lot of water since animals feed on crops grown using water. Although water lost during open storage and post-harvesting evaporates and returns to the atmosphere, it does not return to the same place it came from. Certain regions are likely to face higher water stress and lose the ability to support the growth of crops.
Agricultural Contribution to Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Agricultural activities contribute to greenhouse emissions such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. Such emissions originate from crop residues upon decomposition, organic and inorganic fertilizers, and organic soil cultivation as well as from manure storage. For instance, nitrous oxide emissions are a result of nitrogen re-decomposition and volatilization of ammonia. Methane emissions originate from enteric fermentation in most ruminant animals and the anaerobic fermentation of stored manure. Anaerobic decomposition of organic matter either in feed or in manure releases methane (Trabold & Babbitt. 2018).
Moreover, agricultural soils can absorb or emit carbon dioxide, a process that is determined by the carbon dioxide absorption net effect from the atmosphere by crops. It is also determined by its storage in the soil as soil organic matter and crop residues as well as its atmospheric emission from the same.
The emissions contribute to overall global warming due to their ability to trap heat, which raises temperatures on the earth’s surface. Nitrous oxide is a major contributor to global warming since it is 300 times more effective in trapping heat as compared to methane, which is 20 times (Trabold & Babbitt, 2018). Carbon dioxide is not as harmful as these two since crops utilize it during photosynthesis.
It is worth noting that emissions from global food systems emerge from agriculture, land-based sectors, land use, and their overall changes. The effects of gas emissions are high in developing countries due to high food production to meet the demand of the population, deforestation as well as downstream activities such as refrigeration and food processing (Galanakis, 2019). The chain of food production and distribution involves products and activities that contribute to greenhouse emissions. The larger the carbon footprint cause detrimental effect to the climate.
Global food systems are becoming more intensive in energy utilization as reflected in retailing, packaging, transporting, and the entire food processing. This is the reason these emissions are rapidly increasing in most developing countries. Due to population increase, many countries are heavily investing in food systems to meet the food requirements (Al-Rumaihi, McKay, Mackey, & Al-Ansari, 2020). Most highly populated countries such as the United States of America, China, Brazil, Indonesia, India, and the European Union are the leading top greenhouse emitters in the world.
Production processes such as the use of fertilizers and other farm inputs are major contributing factors to food-system emissions. Land use contributes to about 38 percent of the emissions while distribution accounts for 29 percent (Conrad, Niles, Neher, Roy, Tichenor & Jahns, 2018). In industrialized countries, fluorinated greenhouse emissions such as hydrofluorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, nitrogen trifluoride, and perfluorocarbons mostly from refrigeration have a great effect on global warming.
Fluorinated greenhouse gases tend to trap more heat compared to carbon dioxide. Moreover, they can stay in the air for hundreds of years. They account for 2 percent of emissions when applied as solvents, refrigerants, and in manufacturing (Trabold & Babbitt, 2018). They are also used as solvents, refrigerants, and in manufacturing or occur as by-products where they account for 2 percent. Refrigeration in both supermarket and retail sectors consumes a lot of energy harming the environment. Food packaging has its share of emissions contributing approximately 5.4 percent. It is rated high than both supply and transportation sectors.
Greenhouse emissions are today the driving force for climate change. The global climate systems and weather patterns have been greatly altered resulting in extreme weather events, rising seas, and shifting populations in the wildlife habitats. This results in detrimental health effects to both flora and fauna as the environment becomes unable to sustain them (Galanakis, 2019). The extreme weathers disrupt food supplies and there is an increase in demand for food for both plants and animals. Moreover, wildfires experienced in most animal habitats have resulted in climatic changes. Change in weather patterns in these habitats has resulted in the disappearance of some animal species as some migrate while others die.
Concrete Individual Strategies
I believe that I have a role to play in ensuring that food systems become more sustainable. I will ensure that food is stored appropriately to avoid wastage. This will come a long way with avoiding serving excess food to limit leftovers on the plate. Buying enough but not excess food will encourage efficient utilization and lower chances of spoilage (Conrad et al., 2018). Separating foods that generate ethylene gas that triggers ripening can help improve the shelflife of other food items such as apples, potatoes, berries, and leafy greens.
Learning more about food preservation techniques can help reduce wastages including fermentation, drying, curing, freezing, pickling, sterilization, and canning. Preservation can bring down the carbon footprint, save the environment and avoid losses. Effective management of food stored in the freezer would ensure that everything is consumed before expiry (Kim, Hall, & Kim, 2020). Applying the First-in First-out (FIFO) method can support appropriate food management. Leftovers can also be stored and consumed later instead of discarding them into the dustbin.
Conclusion
Food wastage harms the environment since it is associated with the inappropriate usage of water. Crops are grown using freshwater suggesting that they should be utilized properly. Post-harvest losses contribute to both environmental and water degradation around the world. These wastes are further realized during transportation and processing as well as at end-user points as leftovers. Water and land are the most important natural resources that contribute to food security in the world.
Cultivation of land and irrigation enhances food security systems that facilitate meeting of the rising demand. However, food security systems have caused negative effects on the environment through greenhouse emissions. Modern farming activities release gases such as, methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide. Moreover, industrialization has resulted in the emission of fluorinated gases that are also harmful to the environment. These gases trap heat in the atmosphere causing an overheating of the earth’s surface leading to global warming.
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