Today is World Food Hunger Day, one of the causes that I'm very passionate about. Climate change and global warming means that a lot of farmable land now cannot be cultivated, which will affect food supply in the years to come. It is conceivable that in the next century, there may be a food shortage crisis on Earth without steps to reverse the effects of climate change. Maybe it won't happen in your lifetime, or your kids' lifetime, but it will happen.
Yet, in America we waste 14% of our food purchases per year, and the average American family throws out over $600 of fruit per year. Most of the food we waste is due to spoilage; we're buying too much and using too little of it. Consider the following statistics:
- Tonight 1 billion people will go to bed hungry
- 1 out of 6 people are chronically hungry, now
- 1.02 billion people go hungry every day. Of that number, 1/2 are in Asia and the Pacific and 1/4 in Sub-Saharan Africa
- 1 child dies every 6 seconds from malnutrion and related causes
What You Can Do:
- Click here for a list of things you can do today, World Food Hunger Day, to make an impact.
- When eating out, take your leftovers (although, apparently it is illegal to do so in Australia) and eat them another time or give them to a homeless person on the street.
- Don't buy perishable food in bulk.
- If you notice that fruit and other perishable foods are near expiration, share them with others (take them to work, to a local shelter, or give to your neighbors and friends).
- If fruit has already gone bad, take it to a compost heap (most local parks have one); at least your food will be used to create good, rich soil.
Click here for 50 Ways to Never Waste Food Again, a list of useful ways to reuse leftovers and use up food before it goes bad.
No one should have to go hungry.
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