Speech: "Wasting food is a Crime"
200-300 words
Answers
A crime is ravaging the world, and we are all guilty. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the fact that 821 million people worldwide suffer from some level of malnourishment, and every five seconds an innocent child dies from hunger.
We have more than enough food, but too much of it ends up as waste. Every year, about 1.6 billion tons of food, a third of global production for human consumption, is lost or wasted, at a cost of $2.6 trillion when you factor in secondary effects such as methane emissions and soil degradation. Beyond the immediate impact of waste, landfills full of decaying organic matter contribute to about 8 percent of global greenhouse gases, meaning even our current means of disposing of waste are tarnishing our planet. It is not only an economic and environmental issue, but also an ethical one.
In the Arab region specifically, food loss and waste is a major issue. Saudi Arabia wastes an estimated 427kg of food per person per year, almost 300kg more than the global average.
Elsewhere, there are promising developments in waste reduction and disposal. In Europe, Australia, and parts of North America, anaerobic digestion has increased in popularity. It essentially turns organic waste — which would otherwise end up decomposing in a landfill and releasing methane — into biogas fuel, gray water, and sediment that can supplement fertilizers instead of nitrification. A great example of this technology’s effective use is in Barcelona, where four treatment centers called Ecoparks integrate anaerobic digestion into their waste management, offering an example for Arab cities.
The environmentalist organization EcoMENA has repeatedly pushed for increased use of biogas in the Middle East, but fossil fuel subsidies, the low cost of dumping, a lack of infrastructure, and a lack of awareness stand in the way of useful and proven technologies such as anaerobic digestion. On an individual level, “smart-kitchen” technology, such as bins that can analyze trash and report which items are overbought and wasted, are a fascinating idea to counter waste, yet remain cost prohibitive to most people.