Think.Eat.Save: A Global Food Initiative
“Think.Eat.Save: Reduce Your footprint,” is a global initiative to reduce food loss and waste. It is a partnership between UNEP, FAO, and Messe Düsseldorf that seeks to spur widespread global, regional and national actions and inspire social awareness of the global “food footprint”. Through the exchange of ideas and projects, the Think.Eat.Save campaign raises awareness and showcases solutions to global food waste and food loss issues in both developed and developing countries.
Think.Eat.Save also provides a “one-stop-shop” for news and resources for consumers and producers featuring tips and facts. The website contains advice including how to eat sustainably and methods of preserving food. For producers and sellers of food, the site also offers suggestions for farming, processing and distribution, and restaurant management. Ultimately, the campaign urges everyone from the average consumer to retailers to think critically about food and take action.
In his statement for World Environment Day on June 5, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon mentioned Think.Eat.Save. Ban state that approximately one-third of all food is wasted or lost through poor storage facilities and transportation in developing countries. In order to address this problem, Ban mentioned Think.Eat.Save as a means to create greater efficiency in the food industry.
Food shortages are only half of the global food problem. The other half is food waste and food loss. As tons and tons of precious food and water are dumped into the trash or spoiled in transportation, the world teeters on the brink of a food system failure.
What Think.Eat.Save promotes is a solution for existing issues of the global food system. Instead of producing more, the global community is encouraged to take more responsibility for environmentally and socially equitable food systems. By simply reducing the amount of waste produced, we can save resources and money, lessen environmental impacts, and preserve enough food to create a world in which everybody has enough to fill their stomachs.
– Grace Zhao
