Food production and food waste have an enormous impact on the environment – third of the emissions caused by human consumption are generated during the life cycle of food. Food attitudes are slowly changing but further measures are still needed. The University of Eastern Finland is currently researching how education and teaching can be used to change the behavioural drivers that lead to food being wasted.
Finns throw away roughly 25 kilograms of edible food per person per year. Rotting food waste generates greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and the increase in challenging weather conditions. The world population growth and need for more food is also increasing resource depletion rate of food production. The situation will soon become unsustainable.
“It is clear that we need to make our food behaviour more sustainable – eating more plant and plant-based foods and reducing the amount of food waste. Such a behavioural change will take time and require new cooking knowledge and skills,” says Professor of Home Economics Anna-Liisa Elorinne, PhD (Clin Nutr).
Food waste is a widely researched topic, as opposed to the related behavioural drivers. The current research project addresses the effectiveness of knowledge learned in school on households’ food waste behaviour.
“Participating in this multidisciplinary research project that supports sustainable development are the university’s representatives from Home Economics, Educational Science and the Business School, as well as the Natural Resources Institute Finland.
Knowledge, guidance and attitude changes
Research shows that people mentally compartmentalise climate change as an ecological disaster. Large in scale and difficult to comprehend, people are not able to specify how it affects their everyday life.
“To change our everyday food behaviour, we need more knowledge and positive guidance. The changes also cannot be rushed.”
The project has also shown that the more accessible waste recycling systems are, the more inclined people are to use them and make recycling part of their everyday chores.
“In addition to knowledge, people’s behaviour is affected by their attitudes. It would be great if reducing food waste would generally be considered as something normal and positive.
Food education and teaching new ways of doing things is naturally easier with children and young people. That is why, in addition to home economics classes at school, food education is also part of teaching environmental sciences, biology, geography and social studies.
“This ensures that children get a broad sense and understanding of food having many other properties besides flavour and price. Food literacy refers to understanding the food system, knowing what sustainable food is, and having the knowledge and skills to make good food choices and prepare healthy foods.
To change our everyday food behaviour, we need more knowledge and positive guidance.
Anna-Liisa Elorinne
Professor of Home Economics
Environmental policy includes reducing food waste
“There is a connection between reducing food waste and climate change mitigation, sustainable development and the circular economy, which are all values and objectives set out in the curriculum for basic education,” Early Stage Researcher Milja Pollari explains about the relationship of schools to sustainability education.
She is close to finishing her doctoral dissertation in which she examines home economics, biology and geography textbooks form the perspective of their contents related to food waste, the meanings attributed to those contents, and the pedagogical style of the textbooks.
“Textbooks are still the most used learning material for teaching home economics. This makes it important to examine the way in which food waste is treated in them. The meanings attributed to food waste in textbooks is also a reflection of the attitudes toward food waste in society in general.
One of the targets of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), to which Finland is also committed, calls for halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains (including postharvest losses) by 2030. In Finland, halving food waste by means of education has also been taken into account in political objectives.
Pollari hopes that food education will help children and young people understand the holistic nature of the phenomenon and the consequences of their actions.
“Children and young people need to be taught values and attitudes, but they also need to have the knowledge and skills to apply them in practice. The practical side of home economics classes could include learning about, for example, the bio-refining of food waste.
The meanings attributed to food waste in textbooks is also a reflection of the attitudes toward food waste in society in general.
Milja Pollari
Early Stage Researcher
No worst case scenarios
Pollari says that the values of sustainable development are still quite new to us. Within the review period of 50 years, values and society have changed, and the economic way of thinking about food is now paired with environmental values.
“While the emphasis of home economics classes used to be on health and thriftiness, food and food production are now also being considered from the perspective of responsible consumption and environmental impact.”
This should also bring more diversity to our everyday food consumption. Pollari stresses that those working with children and young people need to keep reminding them that this is not a black and white issue.
“The intention is not to cause anyone anxiety, and big changes do not need to be implemented at once. There are, however, small steps that anyone can take to change their food behaviour.
Anna-Liisa Elorinne also says that schools broach the subject in an age-appropriate manner, avoiding the use of worst case scenarios.
“It should be made clear to children and young people that we will never stop researching and finding new ways for people to have an influence in their everyday lives. Luckily, not all the changes will take place tomorrow, and we are in this for the long haul.”
Participating in the food waste reduction project are the university’s researchers from Home Economics, Educational Science and Business School, as well as researchers from the Natural Resources Institute Finland. The project focuses on researching the significance, impact and effectiveness of school education on changing the behavioural drivers that lead to food being wasted.
The objective of the Business School’s ‘Business from waste sorting solutions’ project is to promote the development of solutions that facilitate household waste sorting, which will create business for local companies in North Karelia.
