The UNEP estimates that in 2022, the world produced 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste across the retail, food service and household sectors. The average amount of food waste per capita that year is estimated to be 132 kg, of which 79 kg was household waste.
Fascinating to note, despite all the inefficiencies in capitalist food distribution and how horrifying entire dumpsters full of stale bread or “spoiled” vegetables are, roughly 60% of all food waste occurs at the household level, that is, because of the decisions of individual consumers on how they handle their own food at home.
The next time someone tries to argue “individual consumption doesn’t matter” I’ll have to cite this chart.
Not that I am disagreeing individual waste is a big part of it, I am not convinced this chart adequately demonstrates that. Is the per capita from the chart after they remove non-individual waste from the total? If not then the per capita includes things like commercial or industrial waste and it’s not really reflecting an individual waste perspective.
When it comes to votes, details aside, your vote is weighed equally to everyone else. When it comes to most matters of consumption, especially relating to greenhouse gasses and other environmental issues, individual “votes” pale in comparison to industry. It becomes more like owning a share in a company, yeah your shareholder vote “matters” but the bank/investment firm that owns 500,000 shares certainly has more sway.
Fascinating to note, despite all the inefficiencies in capitalist food distribution and how horrifying entire dumpsters full of stale bread or “spoiled” vegetables are, roughly 60% of all food waste occurs at the household level, that is, because of the decisions of individual consumers on how they handle their own food at home.
The next time someone tries to argue “individual consumption doesn’t matter” I’ll have to cite this chart.
Not that I am disagreeing individual waste is a big part of it, I am not convinced this chart adequately demonstrates that. Is the per capita from the chart after they remove non-individual waste from the total? If not then the per capita includes things like commercial or industrial waste and it’s not really reflecting an individual waste perspective.
The chart measures household food waste. So yes. That is explicitly what it did.
“individual consumption doesn’t matter” is green “your vote doesn’t matter”
When it comes to votes, details aside, your vote is weighed equally to everyone else. When it comes to most matters of consumption, especially relating to greenhouse gasses and other environmental issues, individual “votes” pale in comparison to industry. It becomes more like owning a share in a company, yeah your shareholder vote “matters” but the bank/investment firm that owns 500,000 shares certainly has more sway.
I’d argue individual consumption is often more impactful than your vote. You can’t gerrymander a dollar.