Immigrant parents often told their kids to finish their food; however, in this generation, it goes beyond the plate to reduce food waste.

Canadian statistics on wasted food 

According to the Second Harvest’s 2019 annual report: Feeding People, Not Landfills, more than half the food that is produced gets thrown out in Canada. This is approximately 35.5 million metric tonnes of food every year. And 11.2 million metric tonnes of it can be avoided. 

Why should we care about wasted food? Why should we do our part in reducing it?

I’m going to state the obvious but it SAVES YOU MONEY! Like my parents, grandparents and great grandparents and ancestors have preached for generations, when you throw out something you bought with money, that is throwing out money. 

Next, let’s talk about the earth’s resources that are used to grow food. When you throw out half your burger, do you know how much it took to raise that cow, manufacture that it into ground beef, transport it to a restaurant, grill it and serve it to you piping hot? I’m just talking about the patty. When you leave it on your plate, it takes additional resources to collect, haul and transport to the landfill site. 

Lastly, the landfill that keeps growing also keeps producing methane emissions, contributing to the greenhouse gases that continue to heat our planet up.