It's not easy being green

We're bombarded with stories about the government carbon reduction push and new incentives to reduce greenhouse gasses.

We're told to turn off lights, reduce our energy consumption, consider solar and in general, do what we can do to protect our environment and reduce carbon loads.

I, for one agree that we should all do what we can to reduce the stress on our planet and reduce, re-use and recycle.

However, a recent study has given me food for thought.

The University of Western Sydney reports that Sydney alone wastes one billion dollars' worth of food per year, and more than 60 per cent of it is fresh food.

Across Australia, we waste five billion dollars' worth of food.

Apparently, that is more than the farmers get paid to grow it.

So, not only are we expending energy growing things that end up in the bin, but all that rubbish goes to landfill and creates methane gas, not to mention soil and ground water contamination.

Add to that, as money gets tighter, we are increasingly turning to cheap fast food, which quite frankly is an environmental no-no.

The packaging in which the food is served mostly ends up in landfill, growing the beef for the burgers produces a huge amount of methane (cows fart a lot), not to mention the clearing of land for more beef farms (particularly in Brazil).

Furthermore the waste produced in a fast food outlet itself is unbelievable (in some chains if the pre-made burgers are not sold in a certain time, they are simply thrown away).

I think our problem is that we just take food for granted. It is plentiful here in Australia, relatively cheap and easily accessible.

That is certainly not the case in the less affluent countries, where a simple bowl of rice has to feed the family.

I would love to see the day when we start caring about where our food comes from, respecting the effort it took to grow it or create it, and importantly consider the animal welfare issues surrounding it (I would never eat a caged egg or intensely farmed chook or pig for instance).

When we think about humans' impact on the environment, perhaps we should spare a thought for what we consume, how it's packaged and how much of it we throw away.

When we talk about being "green" and reducing our "footprint" perhaps we need to start at the inside of our own fridge, and ultimately, the bin.