Reducing the amount of food we waste may actually help combat climate change. Scientists have found that about a 10th of overall global greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture could be traced back to food waste by mid-century.
"Reducing food waste can contribute to fighting hunger, but to some extent also prevent climate impacts like more intense weather extremes and sea-level rise," said Ceren Hic, lead author of the new study, in a news release.
In this latest study, the researchers looked at body types and food requirements for the past and different future scenarios. They accounted for demographic changes, food demand and availability and associated emissions. In the end, they found that while the global average food demand per person remains almost constant, food availability has rapidly increased over the last five decades.
Interestingly, the researchers found a linear relationship with human development. This, in particular, shows that richer countries consume more food than is healthy or simply waste it. Not only that, but greenhouse gas emissions associated with food waste could increase from .5 to 1.9 or 2.5 Gigatons of CO2 equivalents per year by 2050.
"Currently 1.3 billion tons of food per year are discarded," said Jurgen Kropp, co-author of the new study and deputy chair of PIK research domain Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilities. "As many emerging economies like China or India are projected to rapidly increase their food waste as a consequence of changing lifestyle, increasing welfare and dietary habits towards a larger share of animal-based products, this could ever proportionally increase greenhouse-gas emissions associated with food waste-at the same time undermining efforts for an ambitious climate protection."
Currently, researchers want to see how best to make the food supply chain smarter and more efficient. In this case, though, the researchers have found that as lifestyle changes occur, it's likely that emissions will increase. This is particularly important in the future as the world's population increases to 10 billion people.
"Avoiding food loss could pose a leverage to various challenges at once, reducing environmental impacts of agriculture, saving resources used in food production, and enhance local, regional, and global food security," Kropp said.
The findings will be published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
