The new coronavirus has posted a variety of problems on our food system and ecology. One thing I concern the most is the increasing food waste these days.
Due to the newly carried-out policy that requires people to stay at home except for necessary activities, they are moving from eating out to cook more at home. Also, restaurants and shops are shutting down in response to the spread of the coronavirus. These shifts lead to less market demand for food resources. It’s reported that farm growers leave almost half of the crops in the field and are facing exacerbating supply bulge because the demand for their products decreases abruptly.
Thinking about the deep interdependence in our systems and its nonlinearity, we can see the non-predictable effects of the change of one factor on another. The shift in eating patterns drastically decreases the demand for farm products which increases farm waste as well as household food waste. As people turn to take-out and delivery, we also witness an increase in waste through packaging. But despite these adverse impacts of the Covid-19 and the “stay-at-home” policy, it also significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Because of the travel ban and disallowed unnecessary going-out, the use of private cars, public transportation, and even planes has been greatly limited, resulting in a temporary environmentally friendly lifestyle.
From my perspective, to minimize the negative impacts of coronavirus, firstly government and relevant agencies should find a way to manage the food surplus and food waste. It can be donations to poor and food-insecure regions. Also, individuals should not buy an excessive amount of food and ask for paper bags instead of plastic bags for take-out and delivery.
