June 2, 2022 – Most experts agree that a significant factor in climate change is human-produced greenhouse gases that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere. Many of those gases are produced by the burning of fossil fuels equivalent to coal, natural gas and oil, but around 30% of world emissions come from the worldwide food system.
Here are some examples of how our food regimen contributes to climate change.
Water eating
Humans have been irrigating their fields for hundreds of years, but over the past two centuries, irrigation technology and the quantity of water used have exploded. Between 1800 and 2000, the world's irrigated land grew from about 20 million acres to over 615 million acres. Today, agriculture uses 72% of all of the world's freshwater. For example, it takes 3,000 to five,000 liters of water to supply a single kilogram of rice, a staple food for 60% of the world's population. Pumping and treating water accounts for 3% of the United States' total energy use—that's a variety of greenhouse gases.
Impact of packaging
All those single-serving and convenience foods in grocery stores make packing lunch easier, but they arrive at a value: More than two-thirds of the world's packaging materials are utilized in the food sector alone. The packaging industry uses more plastics than another industry, and plastics are created from fossil fuels – they emit greenhouse gases throughout their life cycle. Many plastics find yourself in landfills, where they take a few years to decompose. And after they do, they change into microplastics that enter the food chain when animals and fish eat them. Recently, microplastics were detected for the primary time in human blood.
Food waste and the environment
One-third of the food grown or prepared all over the world isn’t eaten. When you think about how much labor and greenhouse gases go into growing, harvesting, transporting, processing, and packaging food, the next statistic should come as no surprise: Food waste—including the moldy leftovers you throw away, the perishable food you don't buy, and the imperfect crops left in fields—accounts for 8% of world greenhouse gas emissions. And the U.S. is accountable for 10% of world food waste, despite the fact that we make up just 5% of the world's population.