17 Goals for humanity to achieve by 2030 is a huge undertaking. We have to do it, no doubt about that, but as individuals the scale of the project can be so overwhelming that we feel discouraged before we have even taken that first small step. Today we are looking at SDGs Goal 2; Zero Hunger and thinking about how we can contribute as individuals.
This series of articles, based on the Good Life Goals from the World Business Council provides the prompts we all need to take those small steps that will add up to BIG change.
Sustainable agriculture is a big part of Goal 2 which means we all need to learn more about how we farm, fish and make our food. This helps us to make healthy food choices that are better for us AND better for the planet.
Eat Better action 3 is related to this; buy local, seasonal and fairly traded food. To do this we need to ask questions, do some research and think hard about where our food comes from. Out-of-season and processed, packaged foods that have travelled large distances are damaging for the planet and do not always provide optimal nutrition for us. If we eat local produce, cook at home and consider how and where our food is farmed we can improve our own health as well as protecting food supplies and reducing carbon emissions.
I would like to add ‘minimise food waste’ to this list of actions. Food loss refers to loss at or near the farm and in the supply chain, for example, during harvesting, storage or transport. Food waste occurs at the retail level, in hospitality and in households. Both types of waste reduce food available for consumption world wide AND increase methane emissions – one of our most damaging greenhouse gases.
Eating better is good for our own health, as well as being good for the planet. In a world where obesity is becoming as much as a problem as hunger, choosing local, fresh produce instead of processed and packaged foods benefits everyone – both producers and consumers while protecting our precious planet.
We have enough food worldwide to reach our goal of zero hunger, we just need to farm and eat it carefully and wisely.
This is the second in our series of articles on our individual contributions to achieving the Global Goals. The first article, on helping to end poverty, is here
References and more information;
https://ourworldindata.org/obesity
https://sdghub.com/goodlifegoals/
https://www.wri.org/insights/reducing-food-loss-and-food-waste
