My Eighth Week of MANGETOUT MOMENTUM

Hello, 👋

This is the last week for my mangetout momentum. So, this would be my last entry for this assignment.

For this final week, other than doing the same things, I also revised all of previous entries that I had written so far by which I will provide something that might help society to understood how avoiding wastage of food can actually helps economic, environment and humanity. I actually advised my friend and told them everything that I had found during writing those entries which I think can be included as one of my mangetout momentum.

These acts during my mangetout momentum are actually related to my study on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were learnt during my Sustainable Innovation class in my opinion. What is SDGs and which SDGs could relate my mangetout momentum so far?

First, I'm going to explain a little bit introduction of Sustainable Development and the goals. Sustainable development is ‘Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. The term ‘sustainable development’ redefined to cover many aspects of society-environment relationships that there are now ‘doubts on whether anything good can ever be agreed’ through Agenda 21.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jan/19/sustainable-development-goals-united-nations

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) are a new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agendas and political policies over the next 15 years. There are 17 proposed goals for sustainable development which are:

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (taking note of agreements made by the UNFCCC forum)
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development.

Out of 17 SDGs, at least four of them can be relate with my mangetout momentum which are SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-being), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).

SDG 2:
Source: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/blog/2017/la-mejor-receta-es-no-desperdiciar-alimentos.html

The source said that by reducing food waste, we can advance critical conservation efforts and help fight for food security worldwide. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that one-third of the world's food production (1,300 tonnes) is lost or wasted. In developed countries, food wasted by households, distribution industries and the catering sector releases large amounts of greenhouse gases. Pests, defective storage structures and inefficient supply chains also contribute to food loss. This reality is especially painful given that nearly 800 million people are hungry. It also comes with a loss of labour, water, energy, land and other inputs used in food production. If we could save just a quarter of the food that is currently lost or wasted around the world, we could feed all people suffering from food insecurity (UNDP Org., 2017).

Therefore, by making small acts on avoiding wastage of food, we are not only lead to healthy lifestyle, but reduce food waste and help eradicate hunger.

SDG 3:

From previous entry I had mention how drinking while eating could affect our health and of course it can lead to wastage of food. Since SDG 3 is about good health and well-being, I think my mangetout momentum should relate this. Therefore, in order to achieve good health and well-being, preventive measures should be taken such as campaigns of awareness on the harms in drinking water during eating which can leads to digestion problems (wrote about this in previous entry).

SDG 8:
Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/food-waste-a-tremendous-economic-waste_us_5943ca03e4b024b7e0df4afb

Based on the article, roughly one third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted or lost, accounting for nearly 1.3 billion tons of food. Food waste and loss also implies the waste of all the resources that went into producing it, this cannot continue. It is simply unsustainable. Right now, the resulting economic loss is somewhere between 780 billion and 1 trillion dollars a year, while with approximately the same amount of money, or less, all of the nearly eight million people who are going hungry every day, could be fed.

Therefore, with food waste and loss costing the global GDP nearly one trillion dollars per year, is should be accounted as business concern that cannot be ignored. Eliminating this economic loss in vulnerable developing countries also considerably impacts the fight against poverty and hunger. The enormous economic value, societal value and environmental value to be gained by focusing on solutions to food waste and loss is worth our attention.

SDG 12:

Source: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/

Each year, an estimated one third of all food produced – equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes worth around $1 trillion – ends up rotting in the bins of consumers and retailers, or spoiling due to poor transportation and harvesting practices. While substantial environmental impacts from food occur in the production phase (agriculture, food processing), households influence these impacts through their dietary choices and habits. This consequently affects the environment through food-related energy consumption and waste generation. 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year while almost 1 billion people go undernourished and another 1 billion hungry. Over-consumption of food is  detrimental to our health and the environment. Also, 2 billion people globally are overweight or obese.

All of these are the things that are mentioned relate to wastage of food. That is why, everyone should play roles in avoiding food wastage which can be taken as one of effective measure against hunger, bad health, economic crisis and non-sustainable consumption and production.

This should be all of my efforts. Thank you for coping with my 8 weeks long entries of mangetout momentum.😊