A climate and environmental advocate, Mr Michael David has warned that food waste, especially at Christmas, contributes to global warming.
David, who is the Team Lead for the Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation made this known in an interview yesterday.
“For the uninitiated, excess amounts of greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide (CO2), and chlorofluorocarbons absorb infrared radiation and heat the earth’s atmosphere, causing global warming and climate change, he was quoted as saying during the interview. “In addition to money being wasted, discarded food has a negative impact on our environment as it contributes to global warming,”.
He noted that despite this situation, food waste at festivities is very alarming at Christmas, as many of the foods prepared will never be eaten.
David urged Nigerians to consider the energy and natural resources expended in processing, transporting, storing, and cooking food.
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“Food waste that ends up in landfills produces a large amount of methane, a more powerful greenhouse gas than even CO2,”. “Food waste also represents a great waste of fresh water and groundwater resources. With agriculture accounting for 70 per cent of the water used throughout the world, the food packaging of many food products is excessive.
Speaking further, he said “there is a growing awareness that the packaging is environmentally unfriendly because it is non-biodegradable and invariably just gets thrown away and lands up on our landfills or our streets as litter,”.
Story was adapted from Punch.
