Giving Compass' Take:

• The pressure to reduce plastic waste is increasingly felt. As Food Tank writes, recent scientific and technological advances are presenting more viable options when it comes to environmentally-friendly packaging.

• How can organizations contribute to the effort to eliminate plastic packaging? In what other ways can we help reduce waste and improve our food ecosystem? 

• Here's more on what donors can do to address the ocean plastic crisis.

With food traveling an average of 4,200 miles from farm to consumer, it is no surprise that retailers and food processors are concerned with protecting the freshness of food as it travels.

As the food supply chain grows in complexity, we have a responsibility to make sure we are prepared by 2050 to feed a population of nearly 10 billion within environmental limits. When one-third of food produced globally is lost or wasted each year, it is critical that we work together to protect this precious resource and ensure it is delivered safely.

Plastics serve an incredibly important purpose- ensuring that our food reaches you safely. Eliminating all plastic food packaging would lead to a massive uptick in food waste. The global effect of processing wasted food equals about 3.3 billion tons of CO2. For example, the carbon footprint of 1 kg of beef is nearly 400 times that of the plastic packaging used to protect it during distribution and retail sale.

Read the full article on sustainable food based packaging by Karl Deily at Food Tank.