Too much of the cheapest, too little awareness of values: On the day of food rescue, the association Land creates life draws attention to the problem of food waste.

Vienna (OTS) – Food waste is an enormous social problem, the scope of which becomes particularly clear on “Food Rescue Day”: So much food is thrown away worldwide every year that, mathematically speaking, all the food produced from the beginning of the year to May 26th is wasted. Austria contributes over 900,000 tons of food waste every year. To transport this amount, you need around 50,000 trucks, which would form a traffic jam from Vienna to Zurich.

The origins of food waste can be found in agricultural production, processing, retail and out-of-home consumption – but above all in private households. In Austria, we throw away six times as much within our own four walls as supermarkets and wholesalers put together. For Hannes Royer, chairman of the association [Land schafft Leben] (http://www.landscape-life.at), this figure shows the clear need for action for consumers:

“Especially when it comes to food waste, each and every individual has so much power to improve something. However, our consumer behavior and the way we deal with food are sometimes completely contradictory: we buy too much of the cheapest stuff only to then throw away some of it – even though food prices keep rising. We could easily save money here and throw less away. After all, our food waste amounts to around 800 euros per household and year.”

More than just a filler

Of course, food waste is much more than just a monetary problem. Above all, it affects the environment: up to ten percent of the greenhouse gas emissions produced worldwide are caused solely by the production, packaging and transport of food that is thrown away. For Hannes Royer, what is needed above all is more awareness of the value of our food so that less is wasted:

“Food is not just a filler for our body. There are an enormous number of resources behind them – and it’s not just about the high energy consumption for production, packaging and transport, but also about the people who produce the food, the animals that are slaughtered for it and the land that is used for cultivation and thus important CO2 storage is lost. It is high time that we rethink and become aware of the value of our food. Because if something is valuable to you, you don’t throw it in the trash lightly.”