Welcome to Locally Sourced, a biweekly Covering Climate Now newsletter for journalists working to localize the climate story. Share this newsletter with colleagues and journalism students interested in localizing the climate story.
Story Spark: Food Waste
Wasting food not only goes against what you were taught as a child, it also has an astonishingly large climate impact, accounting for nearly 10% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Putting that into context, the UN states that “If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third largest source of emissions, after the US and China.”
Globally, a staggering one-third of all food produced is never eaten — more than one billion tons annually — fueling climate change as it releases methane while it decomposes. Methane is 28 to 80 times more potent of a heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide. Because it also has a far shorter lifespan in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide though, scientists have found that cutting methane emissions is the fastest and simplest way to slow near-term warming and buy time to prevent triggering some climate “tipping points.” While decarbonization across all sectors is critical for avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, reducing household food waste (which adds up to nearly 300 pounds per person, per year) is one of the most effective climate actions an individual can take, according to Project Drawdown.
Showing audiences that they have the power to take action in their daily lives meets their desire to do something, since our governments are not. And these actions can really add up! Whether it’s cooking delicious recipes from scraps and soon-to-expire food, gathering produce left unharvested, participating in local donation drives, or exploring startups working on “upcycling,” there’s a buffet of story ideas to sample.
– David Dickson, CCNow
Expert Tips
This edition’s tips come to you from Gaea Cabico, an editorial fellow at Sentient, where she reports on the impacts of industrial fishing and covers climate change and food systems through a social justice lens. Cabico is a 2024 CCNow Journalism Award winner.
Make the climate connection clear. Most people don’t realize that food waste is a significant climate issue. Wasting some foods carries a much larger footprint than others; beef, for example, is especially wasteful, because cattle require vast amounts of land, feed, and water and also generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Framing food waste as a climate story — not just an economic or hunger issue — can help engage audiences.
Don’t just blame consumers. While household waste gets the most attention, food waste is a systemic issue, happening at every stage of the supply chain: on farms, during processing and transportation, in grocery stores, restaurants, and homes. When reporting, think bigger than individual behavior and highlight structural causes of the problem.
Dig into policy. Food waste is a rare issue that draws bipartisan support, but progress at the federal level has been slow. Important developments are happening at the state and local levels through organics recycling mandates, landfill bans, food donation tax incentives, and date-labeling reforms. Report on whether these measures are actually reducing waste or falling short. The nonprofit ReFED has a useful database tracking food waste legislation and policy gaps across the US.
Look for local solution stories. Food waste offers a wealth of solutions reporting opportunities. For example, community composters are building neighborhood-level systems to keep food scraps out of landfills while creating compost for urban gardens. Food rescue organizations redirect edible food to people experiencing hunger. Another growing area: companies turning food that would otherwise be discarded into snacks or ready-to-eat meals.
Stories We Like
- In Pennsylvania, researchers are exploring how food scraps can be turned into building materials, further reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by concrete production, WHYY reports.
- The Atlantic examines the various ways household food waste piles up, from not putting away groceries to children, described as “adorable food-waste machines.”
- Denmark reduced its food waste by 25% in just five years due to shifting perceptions and packaging changes, The Guardian reports.
- Grist highlights how recent tariffs don’t just hit your wallet, they also disrupt the food supply chain and create more waste.
- In Mexico City, the Los Angeles Times highlights local solutions to reduce the over 400 tons of food that go bad daily in one of the world’s largest wholesale food markets.
Resources
- ReFED is one of the premier nonprofits working to solve food waste in the US. Sign up for their mailing list, check out their latest methane and 2026 food waste reports, and use their food waste monitor tool to track how much food goes uneaten and where it goes.
- Check out the US Environmental Protection Agency’s 2030 Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal and Excess Food Opportunities Map to learn about the progress to cut food waste by half before 2030.
Experts
- Jonathan Deutsch, professor and director, Drexel Food Lab
- Dana Gunders, president, ReFED
Before We Go…
The next Locally Sourced will revisit sports & heat. As summer professional sports, including the World Cup and the French Open, get underway, explore the growing danger of heat for both athletes and spectators. Have you reported on this climate impact and possible solutions? Send them to us at local[at]coveringclimatenow[dot]org. We’d love to consider them for the next edition of Locally Sourced and our media trainings and social platforms.
CCNow Office Hours. Are you a journalist who needs help finding the local angle to a climate story? Sign up for office hours with CCNow’s David Dickson for editorial and climate support.
Want more story ideas? Check out the Locally Sourced archive for more topics to explore, including AI data centers, coastal flooding, air transportation, and more.
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