1. Environmental damage
We are damaging the environment with the occurrence of a large amount of food wasate.
The main method of disposing of food waste in Japan is incineration.
Food waste is transported from processors, distributors, restaurants, and households to processing plants and disposed of,
but the disposal of food waste that contains a lot of water causes the generation of greenhouse gases.
Landfilling the ash after incineration also places a great burden on the environment.
In many countries around the world, food waste is disposed of by landfill.
Methane gas generated when food is landfilled is said to have about 25 times the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide,
and has a major impact on climate change.
This causes extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, and affects the environment in which food is produced.
In addition, a lot of manpower and energy are used to raise livestock, grow rice and vegetables,
and transport them in the supply chain until food waste occurs. Food waste means wasting them all.
Throwing away food that has reached the table through various processes
such as making, processing, and delivering food is a waste of the energy used at these stages.
That's right.
Throwing away food means throwing away more than the value of food.
(II) Virtual water and food waste
Virtual water is an estimate of the amount of water a country would need if it were to produce the food it imports.
When Japan imports food instead of producing it domestically,
it obtains food without using the amount of water that would have been needed to produce the food.
In other words, we are importing water while changing its shape.
Considering this, Japan's current food self-sufficiency rate is about 40%, so it can be said that Japan is dependent on water from other countries.
In addition, water resources on the earth are limited, and the water that can be used as drinking water does not fill 0.01% of the entire earth.
On the other hand, about 2 billion people in the world today are in trouble with safely managed drinking water.
Considering that we are connected to the world's water through food imports, the water problems
such as water shortages and water pollution that are occurring in the world today are not unrelated to the problem of food loss in Japan.
In addition, the total amount of water used in the process from production to disposal of agricultural products,
which are raw materials for food, is called the blue water footprint.
Wasting food means wasting the water used for these crops.
Reducing the amount of food that is wasted will also save the water that is wasted, which will lead to the resolution of the water shortage problem.
2. Economic damage
It is said that the amount of food loss generated by one household in one year is 65,000 yen/year/household.
In Japan, household losses due to leftover food amount to 11.1 trillion yen,
which is almost the same amount as the total production value of the agriculture and fisheries industries.
Also, the tax that we citizens pay is used for the cost of disposing of food loss.
In 2019, about 188.4 billion yen of tax was used to process food loss.
Discarding leftover food and ingredients not only wastes the purchase cost,
but also wastes the tax you paid.
If you can reduce food loss even a little,
you can effectively use the tax on disposal for different purposes.
Bibliogrpahy :
・gooddo -「日本のバーチャルウォーターによる問題について現状を知ろう」(https://gooddo.jp/magazine/sustainable-consumption-production/virtual_water/8701/)
東洋経済 ONLINE -『食品ロスが生活に与える｢4つの深刻な影響｣』(https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/343691)(食品ロス問題ジャーナリスト、井出留美さんによる記事)
朝日新聞 SDGs ACTION! -「食品ロス削減 経済・環境・社会から見る三つの意義とは？」(https://www.asahi.com/sdgs/article/14539143)(食品ロス問題ジャーナリスト、井出留美さんによる記事)
・環境省 -「バーチャルウォーター」(https://www.env.go.jp/water/virtual_water/index.html)「食品ロス削減キャンペーンについて（案）」(https://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/basic/conference/resource/cat.files/d149b73893f34111bdee577d505a29ea.pdf)
・東京都 -「一般廃棄物処理事業実態調査の結果（平成30年度）について」(https://www.env.go.jp/content/900515308.pdf)