Hello everyone and happy Earth Day. I'm Andrew Shakman, Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Shakman.
I have one simple thought and request for you as we collectively reflect today on the changes needed to sustain our planet.
My request: please don’t underestimate the importance of food waste.
When Earth Day was founded 52 years ago, food waste prevention was not a central concern. But this year, the newest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change references food waste 125 times.
And there’s a reason for that.
An extensive and growing body of research shows that food waste is one of the world’s largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. And it’s also a huge driver of land conversion, soil erosion, deforestation and biodiversity loss, and that’s significant.
But what elevates the importance of food waste is not just the scale of its adverse impacts, it’s its actionability.
We have many difficult challenges ahead as we work to preserve and protect our planet. But food waste is something we can each change, starting right now, in our homes, with the choices we make as consumers. And if we’re a food business, with our business decisions and our operations.
Food waste is so large and so actionable, but unfortunately, often the conversation about climate action focuses primarily on energy. It should also focus on food systems and specifically the single largest leak: food waste.
The theme of Earth Day this year is Invest in our Planet. So I invite you to ensure that your vision of investment includes food waste as a headline topic.
It’s powerful, it’s actionable and it deserves our attention.
