“In a world of seven billion people, set to grow to nine billion by 2050, wasting food makes no sense – economically, environmentally and ethically” – UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner

The upcoming world environment day (or Think-Eat-Save campaign) is celebrated annually on June 5 to raise the awareness of global food crisis and reduce the food loss both on household level and at international level. This is an opportunity for everyone to not only realize the responsibility to care for our mother earth but also encourage positive change to avoid any squandering of resources.

There is no denying that tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world. The increase in the number of visitor arrivals worldwide which reached 1,087 millions in 2013 poses a pressure on natural resources to meet tourists’ expectation. Statistics show that the tourism industry tends to overuse the resources which may results in a great volume of food waste.

The cost of food waste in restaurants in UK was 642 million British pounds in 2011 which is expected to increase in the future. In Hong Kong, the amount of commercial and industrial food waste was doubled compared to the past 5 years which contributes to total 3,200 tonnes of food thrown away every day. Food waste occur mainly at the consumption stage of final customers in developed countries.

While about 56% of total food loss occurs in developed countries developing countries account for 44% of losses. In developing countries, a significant amount of food is wasted at the initial agricultural production due to the inadequate harvest techniques, poor infrastructure during storage, processing and transportation so the waste can be managed through the investment.

Food waste also leads to the major waste on natural resources such as water, energy, land and produce significant amount of emissions, hence, contributing to climate change. With enormous amount of food is thrown away, half of the water used to produce the food goes to waste, not to mention the energy spent on growing foods and getting from farm to our plate.

Some 805 million people in the world with the majority lived in developing countries lack adequate foods to live a healthy and active life. In Sub- Saharan Africa, one person in every four is undernourished. In fact, consumers in industrialised nations waste more than 200 million tonnes of food per year which is equivalent to the entire net food production of Sub-Saharan Africa.

On the other hand, climate change has increasingly threatened the sustainability of our planet. So let’s become change agents of positive change. It’s not hard to be a responsible traveler.

–   Choose tour operators and suppliers that are committed to waste reduction by promoting waste managing practices (waste minimizing and recycling). For instance, consider the hotels and restaurants that are donate and compost food waste to generate renewable energy, enhance the soil and feed livestock since the disposal of food to landfill methane-a harmful greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 25 times greater than that of CO2

–   Save your leftovers if you are equipped with proper storage for later use

–   Choose local products to avoid imported foods that are flown halfway across the world, hence reducing carbon footprints. No need to worry because our team will recommend you our carefully selected brands.

–   Or foods with less environmental impact such as organic foods. In our Hanoi Tour, foods are prepared using garden-produced ingredients such as piper lolot. or get your authentic local flavours with chemical-free ingredients including mountain bamboo shoot in many homestay meals in Pu Luong – Sapa, Ngoc Son – Ngo Luong.

It is getting easier for consumers to find the organic foods in big cities. so you can easily find a great variety of locally-produced and chemical free products as well as vegetarian restaurants with some sugestions below:

Hanoi – Vietnam:

Forest Vietnamese Restaurant: 259 Au Co street

Hanoi Social Club: 6 Hoi Vu street

Phnom Penh – Cambodia:

Besto Restaurant and Mart: 74-76, st.126

Petra: Villa 8A, Connecting st.51 and 57

Vientiane – Laos:

Cafe Benoni: Fa Ngum Road, Night market

Cuisine D’ỏ Vegetarian Restaurant: Manthatourath Road