Sustainable consumption

Monday 25th January 2021

In one of our lectures we are looking at the UN and the work that it is doing for the environment and sustainability. The picture is of the 17 sustainable development goals. The one that stuck out for me was GOAL 12: Sustainable consumption and production | UNEP - UN Environment Programme

• Target 12.3: By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses

Each year one third of food produced is wasted - equivalent to $1trillion. 2 billion people are overweight or obese yet a further 1 billion are undernourished and another 1 billion are hungry.

The food sector accounts for around 22% of greenhouse gas emissions.

To achieve the target it would mean almost everyone in the world changing their eating habits - type and quality of food, recycling - and their expectations. The production and supply chains would also have to change drastically.

We need to do this but are we able to? What would need to change to make it happen? Will education and legislation really make the difference needed - are the 1st world consumers really going to make those changes? Will it actually need a food crisis to push us to the edge so that change is made?

Big questions - we had a target to reduce our food waste in our household this year. We are trying to do that but it is a difficult thing to measure.