Reduce Your Foodprint
The theme for this year’s World Environment Day celebrations is Think.Eat.Save.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.
Each of us must rethink our eating habits to have an impact throughout the food chain. This is how we will lay the foundations for greater sustainability. 
Irina Bokova,
UNESCO Director-General, in her message on the occasion of World Environment Day 2013
Given this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, this year’s theme encourages you to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices you make and empowers you to make informed decisions.
Working towards a sustainable future
Agriculture is deeply embedded in local environments – this is where we must act to develop sustainable practices that are meaningful to local communities. Across the world, UNESCO has designated over 600 biosphere reserves as learning sites for sustainable development. Many of these cultivate organically-produced food and textiles, which help to conserve biological diversity and promote rural employment.
There is nothing more cultural or social than food. Through its work to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, UNESCO promotes food practices that enhance the quality of nutrition and draw on local traditions.
Through its Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems programme, UNESCO promotes local and traditional management practices and knowledge, including traditional hunting, fishing and agricultural techniques, as models for sustainability.
As lead agency for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), UNESCO works to empower learners with new attitudes and values, to change their behaviours and lifestyles. With UNEP, UNESCO’s YouthXchange initiative is a concrete example of our commitment to promote sustainability with young people.
UNESCO actions
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- Man and the Biosphere programme
- Biosphere Reserves - learning sites for sustainable development
- United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014)
- Biodiversity Initiative
- Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems programme
- YouthXchange
Towards Sustainable Lifestyles - Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES)
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New Biosphere Reserves
Twelve sites were added to UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves in May 2013.
Join the celebration
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- Educate yourself. Find out where and how your food is produced, and learn more about the environmental impacts of food production.
- Buy locally! Flying food across continents increases global transportation emissions.
- Plan your meals in advance. In medium- and high-income countries food is wasted and lost mainly at later stages in the supply chain – by the consumers.
- Don’t buy more food than you really need. If food is wasted, it means that all the resources and inputs used in the production of all the food are also lost. For example, it takes about 1,000 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk.
- Invent new recipes for using leftovers.
- Compost - composting food scraps can reduce their climate impact while also recycling their nutrients.
- Form a group of peers or colleagues to oversee the food waste at your school, neighborhood or workplace.
Source: UNESCO Multimedia Archives
