1. Food Waste & the Environment

2. Food production
Talk to students about each step and identify inputs and outputs.
Producers - inputs: water, energy/oil, fertilizer. outputs: polluted water and polluted soil
Processors - inputs: energy/oil, water, chemicals. outputs: pollution from factories into water, soil, and air
Suppliers/distributors - gasoline (transportation), plastics/chemicals for packaging outputs: air pollution/greenhouse gases
Restaurants/retailer/home consumers - outputs: FOOD WASTE
CDC - Foodborne Outbreak Investigations

3. Food disposal
Data from the EPA
Most of our food gets carried away as trash. This trash is driven far distances to landfills. (air pollution from trucks)
Landfills cause many pollution problems.
Garbage leaches into water sources and contaminates healthy soil
Decomposition of food waste produces methane, a greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to global climate change
Landfills are created from natural/wild lands. Habitat for animals and plants are destroyed to make room for our trash.