2024 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit

I would love for the summit attendees to attendees to consider how they can use carbon insetting to support their path to Net Zero.To mitigate the worst consequences of global warming on our planet, the Science Based Target Initiative recommends that we reduce a least 72% of carbon emissions coming from agriculture by no later than 2050. To meet this target, insetting mechanisms must be implemented throughout, to decarbonise supply chains, from farm to fork.Food production processes need to become at least 72% cleaner, and that includes being a lot less wasteful.

When I started researching the issue of food waste while in university, the information I found was so alarming, I felt like I had no choice but to try to do something about it. Globally, a third of all the food we produce each year gets thrown away - which is worth over $1 trillion US dollars. And the environmental impact of this is absolutely devastating - it if were to be a country, food waste would be the 3rd largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the USA and China.That’s because a landmass larger than China is used every year to grow food that’s never eaten - that includes land that has been deforested, soil that’s been degraded and species that have been driven to extinction; it’s also all the manufacturing, packaging, refrigeration and distribution too. With an estimated 2.5 billion people joining the planet by 2050, we would need to double global food production to feed our growing population. However, at our current rate of production and waste, as of today, this is not something we know how to do.We need to find more efficient ways to produce more but we also need to reduce waste - and the opportunity to play a part in creating a less wasteful future is what gets me up in the morning.