Why should we save food?

The following resources were created based on the original by Bundesministerium für Umwelt,Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz.

The pupils…

• understand the problem of food waste
• are able to explain the connection between food production and resource requirements
• understand food waste as an example of the connection between consumer behaviour and unsustainable developments
• reflect on their own consumer behaviour
• develop ideas for more sustainable consumption
• research and evaluate initiatives for sustainable consumption
• consider the advantages and disadvantages of food quality regulations (e.g. best before date) and quality classes

4-6 teaching units

Tools or equipment

• Food that is still edible but is often thrown away (e.g. past its best-before date, misshapen fruit and vegetables)
• Posters
• Pens
• Computer or other internet access
• Information material about initiatives that endeavour to reduce food waste

Read the information text (see end of document) and visualise the key relationships.

The problem of food waste has been recognised for some time. This is why there are numerous initiatives today that are committed to better utilisation of food. Work together in small groups and find out about one of the following initiatives on the Internet:Zu gut für die Tonne

• Foodsharing
• Food Banks
• TooGoodToGo
• The Good Food
• Food Fighters

Summarises key information about the initiative. Describe in a few sentences what the initiative does. Also answer the following questions:

• Who are the people or organisations targeted by the initiative?
• How do these individuals or organisations typically contribute to food waste?
• How does the initiative reduce the amount of food waste?
• Could the initiative be transferred to other food waste actors (persons/organisations)? What other areas of application can you think of? Explain your assessment.

Optional:

Now it's up to you! Find out whether one of the initiatives is also active here and use it to save food. Alternatively, you can ask a grocery shop (supermarket, bakery, restaurant, snack bar) what happens to the food that is not sold. Document your experiences.

Closure

Present the results of your group work and share your experiences with the class.

Write down on the board what different people or organisations can do specifically to reduce food waste.

Evaluate the different approaches in plenary. Think about the following aspects, for example:

• Which approaches can be particularly effective?
• Which approaches are particularly easy to implement?
• Which approaches have obstacles, and what are they?
• What could help to reduce the obstacles?

Now vote on which approaches you find particularly suitable for everyday use. Record these approaches on a poster.

• Introduction: The teacher presents the pupils with various foods that are only edible but are still often thrown away (e.g. dairy products that are past their best-before date, fruit and vegetables with blemishes). The pupils are asked to discuss which foods they would still eat. A rubbish bin and a saucepan can be drawn on the board and the food written in them. The reasons for the categorisation can be collected around these, similar to a mind map.
  The teacher informs them that the food they have brought with them is all still edible and that enormous quantities of such food mistakenly end up as waste. Key aspects of the problem and data on the scale of the problem are mentioned. The working materials are then handed out to the pupils.
• Alternative: The class goes on a tour of the school and tries to find discarded food (e.g. near benches, in rubbish bins, in the canteen). Afterwards, as described above, they discuss which of the food waste they found would still have been suitable for consumption.

Expansion options:
Pupils create flyers with tips on how to avoid food waste and distribute them at school.
Pupils enquire at local retailers about leftover food. They develop strategies to utilise this food and implement the ideas.
Pupils develop business ideas with the aim of saving food or utilising it sensibly.
Pupils create infographics based on various information materials and data. The ‘European Environment Agency’ and the ‘FAO’ can serve as sources.
The FoodWasteTracker from the FoodLabHome project can be used to determine the climatic impact of food waste. The website also provides teaching materials.

Info- Text:
Food waste: Facts and figures

Food waste is a major contributor to climate change and many other environmental impacts. It is also a major ethical problem. And it would be easy to avoid a large proportion of it.

According to estimates by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), around 17 per cent of all ready-to-eat food worldwide is not consumed but thrown away. If food losses on farms and in supply chains are added to this, UNEP estimates that a third of all food produced is never consumed.

This problem is often referred to as food waste, especially when it would have been avoidable to throw the food away.

Why is waste a problem?

Energy, water and land are used unnecessarily to produce and transport food that is not consumed, and fertilisers and pesticides are used. It is estimated that eight to ten per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food losses and waste.

Even today, global food production has many disadvantages for ecosystems and the climate. Meat consumption is particularly damaging, followed by dairy products.

This is because keeping livestock requires a particularly large amount of natural resources such as land and water and causes greenhouse gas emissions.

In Germany, more than half of the country's territory is used for agriculture. Intensive farming in particular is responsible for the decline and threat to numerous species - among other things through the use of pesticides. In addition, arable farming and animal husbandry, in which pesticides and fertilisers are used, cause problems for soil and water.

Food production therefore affects ecosystems, the climate and our health.  For these and other reasons, it is very important to treat food with care and to value it.

What is the extent of the waste?

Different information can be found in the media and in various sources. This is also due to different definitions. The United Nations Environment Program presented methods for measuring this in 2021.

The current data shows: Worldwide, around 17% of all food ends up in the bin due to food waste in households, restaurants and stores.

In Germany, the Federal Cabinet adopted the “National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste” in February 2019. Since then, methods for uniform nationwide recording of food waste have been developed. As a result, around twelve million tons of food waste are generated in Germany every year. More than half of this, around seven million tons, could be avoided.

According to the study, the majority of food waste (52% or 6.1 million tons per year) is generated in private households. According to this calculation, each person throws away around 75 kilograms of food per year. This does not even include drinks and food waste that is disposed of via the sewage system.

Primary production accounts for around twelve percent (1.4 million tons) of food waste, while processing accounts for 18 percent (2.2 million tons). 14 percent (1.7 million tons) of waste is generated in out-of-home catering. And according to this calculation, retail accounts for four percent (0.5 million tons) of food waste.