Food production entails emissions from agriculture, but also from processing, transport and packaging.
Food wastage has a disastrous impact on the climate, contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions of 3.49 billion tonnes of CO2eq (carbon dioxide equivalent). In Poland it is estimated at 16.5 million tons of CO2eq. This is more than half of the emissions produced by agriculture in our country.
No regulations
Without a reduction in food wastage, it will not be possible to halt the climate catastrophe. The first step should be to reduce the amount of food thrown away by households and to reduce wasting food in the sales process. Food production causes not only emissions associated with agricultural production, but also with agri-food processing, transport (both agricultural raw materials and food products), packaging and preparation for sale.
“Unfortunately, I have the impression that this problem is being disregarded by the government. So far, we do not have any regulations in Poland that would prevent food from being wasted,” points out Zbigniew Karaczun, PhD, Professor at SGGW, expert of the Climate Coalition.
The expert emphasizes that the more processed the food, the higher its carbon footprint (see the box) and the greater its impact on the climate. For example, throwing away 1 kg of butter causes the same level of greenhouse gas emissions as wasting almost 80 kg of apples. But throwing away food is not only a problem contributing to climate change. Above all, it is a negative social and economic phenomenon.