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To Combat Food Waste In America, CU Students Hold Educational Events

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Climate activists are raising awareness about the role food production plays in greenhouse gas emissions. University of Colorado Boulder is focusing on the issue amid Food Waste Awareness Week.

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A group of graduate students, alongside the City of Boulder, will be holding a series of events encouraging people to properly dispose of left over food. Those events include cooking challenges and a farmer's roundtable discussion.

It's currently estimated food waste contributes to 8% of global emissions. One example is the significant amount of resources used to produce food when so much of it ends up in landfills.

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To keep that from happening, nonprofits like Boulder Food Rescue collect excess food from grocery stores and donate them to various sites which service low income residents.

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"There's a lot of resource use and associated greenhouse gas emissions with growing our food and we want to make sure we eat it all. Currently about 40% of the food grown in the U.S. and available to people to eat here is not eaten and that just blows my mind," said Sarah Ditton, a Food Waste Awareness Week Co-Coordinator.

LINK: Food Waste Awareness Week

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