foreign threats to Nature and our planet what comes to mind climate change deforestation pollution you might not realize it but one of the biggest threats is something we interact with every day food how we grow and use it agriculture is the number one cause of habitat loss impacting what nature can provide to people and Wildlife how does food have such a big impact on our environment and biodiversity it takes a lot of Natural Resources like land water and energy to grow food imagine you are riding in an airplane looking out the window as you fly over land what do you think you would see most likely you would see a lot of farms when we Farm we often change the existing Habitat to grow crops before it was a farm the land might have been a grassland home to bison or black-footed ferrets a desert home to road runners butterflies and rare cacti or even a rainforest home to orangutans and jaguars once the land becomes a farm much of the Native Wildlife can no longer live there because the natural resources they need are gone as the demand for food increases more habitats are converted to farmland and there is less and less left for nature growing fruits vegetables and feed for Animals such as cows pigs and chickens requires a huge amount of fresh water in fact 70 percent of all the freshwater people use on the planet goes to watering farmland and providing for farm animals but it doesn't end there once the food leaves the farm it needs to be packaged refrigerated and transported to grocery stores and restaurants that's a lot of energy to put food on the table now what if I told you we wasted an estimated 30 to 40 percent of all the food we grow in the United States unfortunately it's true every 10 seconds over 20 tons of food is thrown out that's about as much as one school bus this includes uneaten food from homes schools businesses and food that never made it off the farm in 2019 WWF did a study that estimated food thrown out in school cafeterias alone could amount to approximately 530 000 tons of wasted food per year this waste equates to 1.9 million metric tons of greenhouse gases 20.9 billion gallons of water and 1.7 billion US dollars think about a milk carton when we throw away an unopened milk carton we waste all the land water energy and labor that was used to feed a dairy cow the resources and energy used to get the milk to you and the energy to keep it cold and safe to drink to make the problem worse when we throw food and organic materials into the garbage it ends up in landfills and contributes to climate change by emitting methane a greenhouse gas even more harmful than carbon dioxide that's a lot for a single milk carton but don't worry this is why your kitchen and school cafeteria are great places to help the planet by reducing food waste a great first step to becoming a food waste Warrior is recognizing what types of food you your family and your classmates are throwing away the most you can do this at home by separating food waste from trash then measuring how much food waste there is at school do a student-led cafeteria audit a couple times a year when you regularly measure and observe something you can find Trends and create solutions for the problem for example are you throwing away a lot of rotten fruits and vegetables once you know what types of food are being thrown away there are several things you can do get creative fruits and veggies that are no longer fresh enough to eat raw can be incorporated into smoothies desserts or soups remember to eat or freeze leftovers and only buy what you need at the store at school talk with the cafeteria staff about setting up a share table where students and staff can put unopened and leftover lunch food for others to take who may still be hungry if there are still leftovers at the end of the day work with a local food bank to donate extra food to others in need in your community try composting leftover food composting helps keep food in organic material out of landfills and incinerators helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions talk with your school administration and local political officials about implementing composting programs in your area young people can make a huge difference by using their voices to advocate for environmental issues you can write to your state legislature and ask them to implement food waste programs and remind them that food should never be trash in fact a group of students in Maryland successfully worked with their legislature to pass a bill that would increase food waste programs in schools so next time you're at home in a restaurant or in your cafeteria think about the food you eat and all that it took to get it to you reducing food waste can be hard at first but with a little effort you can make a big difference for our planet and the wildlife we share it with foreign [Music]