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This is we we are! (from left to right)
Hello I’m Harmen, I am 14 years old and I live here in Emmen. My hobbies are playing football and gaming. Hello I am Patrick, I am 14 years old, I live in Emmen, my hobbies are playing football and playing video games. Hello my name is Jhahin, I am 14 years old and live in Emmen. I like playing football and gaming. Hello, I'm Mathijs I'm 14 years old and I like playing football. Me and my family live in Barger-Oosterveld, a suburb in the city Emmen. Division of tasks:
Patrick: Difference Between food waste and Food loss Jhahin: How can food waste be prevented/reduced at a supermarket/local grocery shop Mathijs: Pictures/videos research Harmen: Interviews |
What is the difference between food waste and food loss?
Food waste is the throwing of consumable food after production and after throwing the food away it will expire and unable to consume. Food loss is the loss of food quantity and quality when food is harvested or it was a decision made by the food supplier.
What do supermarkets/grocery shops do to prevent food waste?
We asked the local Albert Heijn (a Dutch supermarket) what they do to prevent food waste and they that they put sales on products so people buy it faster otherwise they bought the food for no reason and they will make a loss and if that doesn’t work they bring it to a food bank so people who don’t have a lot of money for food can be cared for. This is a good approach to this issue and we hope more store do this! With the corona situation we couldn't go to supermarkets so we decided to text a lot, only 1 more responded, The Lidl. They told us they give consumers tips on their products on how to reduce food waste. An example of a tip is that you need to re-use food you had left over from the previous day,
What can our school do?
We spoke to a member of our school who also does work in the cantine, We asked her what they do to prevent food waste, Her answer was that they try to buy as little as possible by looking at the amount of students present that day. I think this is a good approach as this prevents buying too much, so not a lot of food is left. What did sadden me is what happens with food that is left over, her answer was that it is thrown away. In my opinion this is not a good approach and should be changed. What said a lot to me is that the member said this with guilt in her eyes. A good change could be that the remains are brought to a food bank, this would be better for the world and help the less rich people. Another tip could be that food is made more expensive as this would make it less attractive, meaning less people buy it and less has to be bought by the school. Last tip would be that no hot food would be sold as this has to be thrown away more often due to the short time it can be sold. So no burgers anymore!
What is the relation between climate change and food loss?
It was difficult to find a expert on food waste to interview so we took a more drastic approach, we decided to tweet Toine Timmermans, Program manager Sustainable Food Chains at the Research Institute Food & Biobased Research, part of Wageningen University & Research Centre. We asked him what the relation between food waste and climate change was and he responded quickly and helped us a lot. Mister Timmermans told us that 6-8% of world wide greenhouse gases is emitted making food that is thrown away. He also referred us to the Drawdown report which is also is a really interesting report on climate change. In this I found that roughly a third of food in the world is thrown away. This and the 6-8% really shocked us since we didn't think food waste would have such a big impact on climate change. This also makes me (Harmen) and hopefully you, the reader, a bit more aware on trying to do everything to prevent food waste. I truely believe we can change the way we act when it comes to saving food but everyone needs to do his/her part. We can do this!
How can we reduce food waste at home?
I decided to take a look at how many food we had at home and make pictures of it. As you can see, it is really a lot. That is the first part on how to reduce food waste. Try to buy as little as possible. If you have less food in stock at home, you will have less remaining that you need to throw away. Another thing you can do is have one fixed day to eat remains. This reduces food you throw away because you still eat it. The date on a package often is not the day it really isn't eatable anymore. Smell the food before you eat it ofcourse because you don't want to eat rotten food but a lot of thrown away food is still very tasty..
Always check how many food you need before you are going to cook. Check how much you need, if you are alone, cook for 1 person. When you are following a recipe for 4 people and you are only with 2, halve everything so you don't make too much
Always check how many food you need before you are going to cook. Check how much you need, if you are alone, cook for 1 person. When you are following a recipe for 4 people and you are only with 2, halve everything so you don't make too much
How can we reduce food waste at home and at school?
As you have read in our reports, this really is a big problem we need to solve, starting with you. Try to buy as little as possible, have days to eat remains and check for how many people you are cooking and adjust your meal to this. At school we really need to stop throwing away food ike we do now. I am sure we can do this!
Comparison
There are a lot of similarities between the Indians and us. We both had 3 very similar tips for being at home. Only buy what is needed, re-use used food by giving it to people in need. We have the foodbank for this, and as a 3rd tip we both had that you precisely need to work out with how many persons you will eat and how much you need to cook then. Their tips for at the supermarket were a bit different than ours, since they talked about donating to the Robin Hood army (a similar organisation to our foodbank) instead of giving out coupons, while in the Netherlands we never use coupons. The biggest difference was that leftovers at school were given to the kids who can't afford to bring food to school, while we often just throw it away. I think we should do this at our school too!
Overall, we were quite similar with one big difference, how our schools handle with leftovers.
Overall, we were quite similar with one big difference, how our schools handle with leftovers.