Finding Your Future in Food Systems with Allie Hines, Anne Garsztka (Special Episode)

Thank you guys so much.

I can tell from the intro that we're in the right place with the right people.

So give me a second here to share screen and get it going.

Are you guys seeing my screen? Amazing.

All right.

So thanks again to Aya and Nora for steering the ship today and to everyone here for allowing Anne and I to really have some space to share a little bit about WWF, our work in the hospitality sector through Hotel Kitchen Toolkit and Partnerships, and even a little bit about ourselves.

I think we'll have a good time.

Now, I wanted to start us with a question that sometimes we get asked, which is, why does WWF, as this international conservation organization, work on food loss and waste? Well, I'd like us to consider WWF's mission first, which is to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature.

And I'm going to take the words from a WWF leader who I think sums it up really well.

He says, there is no conservation without people.

And there is no conservation or people without food.

And WWF can't achieve our mission if we don't transform food and agricultural systems and addressing food loss and waste is part of that equation.

Um, what I have here is every two years, WWF publishes its living planet report.

Uh, this one was the 2024 report and it's really a comprehensive analysis of earth's overall health, assessing biodiversity, and then the impact of human activity on it.

Uh, what I want to really elevate here within the main findings from the 2024 report is that food production is one of the main drivers of nature's decline.

And so to break that down a little bit more, food production is the leading cause of deforestation and habitat loss, 70% of freshwater use, and it equates to about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.

All of this is true, and yet 30 to 40% of all food produced is never eaten.

And producing food that ultimately goes to waste takes up a land area larger than China, has a one trillion cost to society globally and leaves one billion meals off of plates and out of bellies each day.

That's using more than a fourth of that available fresh water annually, and it's producing four times the emissions of the global airline industry.

So a lot of challenge, but opportunity in that.

And WWF works on food loss and waste because wasting less food is one of the simplest ways to help the planet and feed more people without placing more burdens on nature.

So while food loss and waste is a real global issue, it's also one of the biggest chances we have to create environmental, social, and economic wins together.

And this is a map representing the WWF network offices that currently implement food loss and waste projects.

There's about 80 WWF offices worldwide.

And the U.S. team is the largest and one of the founding food loss and waste offices in our network.

Thank you guys so much.

I can tell from the intro that we're in the right place with the right people.

So give me a second here to share screen and get it going.

Are you guys seeing my screen? Amazing.

All right.

So thanks again to Aya and Nora for steering the ship today and to everyone here for allowing Anne and I to really have some space to share a little bit about WWF, our work in the hospitality sector through Hotel Kitchen Toolkit and Partnerships, and even a little bit about ourselves.

I think we'll have a good time.

Now, I wanted to start us with a question that sometimes we get asked, which is, why does WWF, as this international conservation organization, work on food loss and waste? Well, I'd like us to consider WWF's mission first, which is to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature.

And I'm going to take the words from a WWF leader who I think sums it up really well.

He says, there is no conservation without people.

And there is no conservation or people without food.

And WWF can't achieve our mission if we don't transform food and agricultural systems and addressing food loss and waste is part of that equation.

Um, what I have here is every two years, WWF publishes its living planet report.

Uh, this one was the 2024 report and it's really a comprehensive analysis of earth's overall health, assessing biodiversity, and then the impact of human activity on it.

Uh, what I want to really elevate here within the main findings from the 2024 report is that food production is one of the main drivers of nature's decline.

And so to break that down a little bit more, food production is the leading cause of deforestation and habitat loss, 70% of freshwater use, and it equates to about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.

All of this is true, and yet 30 to 40% of all food produced is never eaten.

And producing food that ultimately goes to waste takes up a land area larger than China, has a one trillion cost to society globally and leaves one billion meals off of plates and out of bellies each day.

That's using more than a fourth of that available fresh water annually, and it's producing four times the emissions of the global airline industry.

So a lot of challenge, but opportunity in that.

And WWF works on food loss and waste because wasting less food is one of the simplest ways to help the planet and feed more people without placing more burdens on nature.

So while food loss and waste is a real global issue, it's also one of the biggest chances we have to create environmental, social, and economic wins together.

And this is a map representing the WWF network offices that currently implement food loss and waste projects.

There's about 80 WWF offices worldwide.

And the U.S. team is the largest and one of the founding food loss and waste offices in our network.