Food management critical in Guyana's climate change fight

The Guyana Times: The importance of managing food in the fight against global warming was reinforced by national and international diplomats during the Environmental Community Health Organisation’s (ECHO) first National Environmental Youth Convention on Wednesday, which was held to mark World Environment Day.

Schoolchildren marvel at “trees” and a “house“ made of recycled bottles at the World Environment Day observance, organised by the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry

In keeping with the theme “Think. Eat. Save.”, U.S. Ambassador D Brent Hardt, while addressing primary and secondary school students at the Guyana International Convention Centre (GICC), said the close link between food security and climate change cannot go unnoticed.

The evidence of global warming is glaring, the U.S. ambassador said, pointing to an increase in floods, forest fires, hurricanes and other natural disasters. This global phenomena, he said, can be attributed to the increase in land, water and air pollutions.

He said due to lack of effective food management, approximately 1.3 billion tons of food are disposed of annually. “Every year, 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted… and one third of everything that is grown in the world is lost or wasted. This is just a huge drain on natural resources.”

Ambassador Hardt explained that during the production and distribution of food across the world, significant amounts of financial and natural resources are utilised to generate food. In the process, 70 per cent of the world’s fresh water is used while deforestation occurs to facilitate food production, although it contributes to global warming....

Stabroek Market in Georgetown, Guyana, shot by Loriski, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license