05/04/2026
FOOD WASTE IS AN ENEMY OF HUMANITY
Fellow Ghanaians,
I come in peace to your quarters this morning, especially my fellow youth and Gen-zs. Something has bothered me for long and I think I should speak out to you. Food is a valuable asset in every country or household. In fact, it is said that, he who feed you, controls you; this is the power of food.
Dishing out more than you can eat in our homes, buying more than you can in restaurants and food vending points whiles you intentionally send kilos of food in the garbage every moment on the table isn't not CIVILIZATION or show of wealth or a sign of comfortable life, it is a clear sign of complete ignorance on your side.
Did you know that, every gram of food wasted drives climate change by contributing to greenhouse gasses emissions, deforestation, wasted global energy, and depletion of household economic power? I know you may have not actually sunk so deep into how your ignorant attitude of buying plenty food in the restaurant whiles you can barely eat half of it could cost you more, and the dire consequences of global warming. Yes, every food wasted drives climate change-- a common enemy of humanity in the world today.
Before food gets to your table, let's sink deep into how it is done. It's starts by ideation; someone would have to spend hours to plan on how to produce that gram of food you easily wasted. Resources; the land, money, labour, and the skills that goes into producing a gram of food is virtually wasted anytime that food is eventually thrown into the garbage. Destruction of vegetations and biodiversity; vegetations are cleared, trees are brought down, soil ecosystem is disturbed, human energy is used before food is finally ready for the table. When the crops are matured for harvest, fuel is used to cart them from production centers to warehouses and our markets, huge sums of family income are invested into household food security, power (electricity) is used in food storage and when wasted at last; all these drives climate change and contribute to household poverty. Deliberately wasting food means deliberately thwarting our collective effort of ensuring food security.
It is said that, nearly a third (about 30%) of the global food available for consumption are wasted annually. How? That's is huge! This translates into a figure of about 1.3 - 1.5 billion tonnes at as 2024. This is enough to feed the entire West African sub-region. In 2022, the EU and FAO estimated that, out of over a billion tonnes of food waste globally, 60 percent came from domestic sources (households), 28 percent from food service centers like hotels, restaurants, food joints, etc. Sad to know about this is the fact that, these losses are hugely deliberate and lifestyle-driven. Even the poor, who ought to value food are worse culprits.
But until when, shall we allow ourselves to be driven by ignorance, all in the name of showing off or modernity continue to wreak such havoc on ourselves? The time is now to act and stop! Food waste undermines our collective existence on earth. Let's change the narrative now!!
I am Nana Osei Kwabena Risarp and I am against food wastage. I hope you join the campaign too 👍👍
