A Report On Food Waste

The United States of America is arguably known as one of the most cultural and distinguished places around the world when dealing with food. There are so many contributions that give people this impression. People look at the United States as if it has the ideal method on how to deal with food, not knowing that the United States of America is quite wasteful. Although the United States of America has this awe-inspiring impression on people, you should not be fooled. America is a leading country for food waste, this is problematic because there are millions of people in this country that could use this food, and it is also harmful to the environment. In fact the United States of America ruins so much food it can fill up to seven hundred and thirty football stadiums. About as much as forty percent of food in America goes uneaten giving me the impression that America is wasteful when it comes to dealing with food.

From the moment in time which marked the emergence of the human race, food has been an integral part of society. It has served as more than just sustenance aiding in the formation of cultures, civilizations, and technologies. However as the human mind evolved, so too did views on the value of food. The degradation of these views has resulted in between 1.3 and 2.2 billion tons of food being wasted globally each year (Finn et al. 2). Most Americans are guilty of having to thrown away a forgotten piece of food that has spoiled, but the problem is far bigger than that. Annually thirty-four million tons of food waste finds its way into American landfills (Buzby et al. 2). Unfortunately a majority of American citizens are ignorant to this fact. These citizens perceive the food they seen thrown away as the lost of a few dollar at the most and therefore not a serious problem. However, a large number of the United States’ social, economic, and environmental issues which need to be understood and addressed can be attributed to food waste.

I personally believe that the problem of food waste starts with the people, since whenever somebody buys groceries they get more food than what is necessary. Americans end up buying more than 300 billion pounds of food, when they only need around 5 to satisfy the hunger requirements of every single family in the nation. It becomes impossible to understand when people starve in the streets.

Food is simply too good to waste. And while the loss of some food is inevitable, the amount of food Americans waste everyday has reached an all time high, and still continues to grow. The process by which food is produced uses 10% of the national energy budget, 50% of U.S. land, and 80% of the freshwater in the United States. (Gunders, 2012). Yet, 40% or 133 billion pounds of the food grown in this country goes to waste every year (Buzby, 2014). Reducing food losses by just 15% would be enough to feed more than 25 million Americans every year, when one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables (Gunders, 2012). Schools are one of the largest contributors to plate waste. A study by Richard Cohen reveals that plate waste accounts

Throughout the United States millions of people starve every day; at the other end of the spectrum millions of people waste thousands of tons of food a day. This is a dilemma that young adults are trying to correct. The problem that lies in front of them, involves the waste from colleges. College students continue to combat each other. Some colleges in the United States use the food they waste to create energy or compost for local crops. While others do nothing to help the environment and don’t are about sustainability. “‘If anyone is going to reverse the trend of food waste, it's millennials,’ says Dana Gunders at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council. ‘They care, they're just starting to form their food habits and they're opened

Many people wonder how much food is actually wasted each year in the United States. In the article, How Much Food do We Waste Every Year? written by Casey Chan, he reveals facts about the percentages of food that are wasted by certain groups and businesses each year in a video produced by Visually. Approximately $165 billion is spent on wasted food each year in the United States; 6 percent of which is wasted by grocery stores, 15 percent is produced by restaurants and bakeries, and 25 percent is produced from the average person household. That may be a large number, but if American’s were to save just 15 percent of all of the food wasted, it would be able to feed 25 million starving people in the United States (Chan, 2013).

In this summary I will briefly explain the entirety of my senior project essay which has to do with food waste. I will talk about four major sections in which I divided my senior project into to help me write it. First was how much food is wasted not just here in the U.S. alone, but the world in general, second describes the negative affects food waste has in the world, third explains and gives reasons why some of this food goes to waste, and finally the final section gives the reader information on how we as individuals and as a nation combined can reduce the amount of food waste.

There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

We have all probably eaten a delicious lunch or dinner, and been so full that we didn't know what to do with the leftovers.  The easiest solution for us is to just throw it away. That is actually the worst solution. Food waste has become a tremendous problem in the United States. One reason why it's a big issue, is because so much edible food is being thrown away. About 40% of all food produced in the U.S. is wasted. The worst part of all of this, is that there are millions of Americans who do not have food. We need to try to waste less food as soon as possible.

1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year on the planet, which means that almost half of the food production in the entire world is wasted each year. Food waste appears when food products are being thrown away without having been consumed by anyone. Thus, food wastes can arise directly from the consumer’s house, whenever people forget to eat the food and it starts to rot and they are obliged to throw it, or it may be a result of food losses during the production and transportation processes. In addition, over 30% of the fruits and vegetables in North America are not even displayed in grocery stores because they are not pretty enough. Food waste represents a major issue in today’s world where, inter alia, climate changes are noticeable and

How much food are you wasting? Did you know that Australians throw out $8 to $10 billion dollars of food every year? This is called wasting food. Us Australians waste four million tonnes of food which ends up in land fill. Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year gets lost or wasted.

There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent

Food waste, throughout America, and the world, has become such a momentous problem that we can no longer afford to ignore it. In Caroline Scott-Thomas’s article US Wastes 40% of its Food Production, Finds NRDC, she writes that the chain of food waste begins with farmers and ends with consumers. Whereas Danielle Nirenberg’s article In a World of Abundance, Food Waste is a Crime she covers not only America but sub-Saharan Africa as well. Each article supplies endless statistics to back up their claims of food wastage, however, I believe one provides sources to back up their claims while another is more of an opinion piece. Americans are becoming increasingly aware of the waste they produce which has caused writers to study the reasons why such an excess of food is being thrown away, furthermore, while both articles are insightful and well-written, Caroline Scott-Thomas’s article provided the study as backup for her article while Nirenberg fails to cite significant sources in hers.

Abundance, a factor that leads to people not appreciating what they have so they throw it out. Even though, food is a scarcity of some countries, there is a plethora of food in America. Yet, food is a prevalent waste item in the United States. When people become comfortable and learn that they will have everything to live comfortably they don’t fully appreciate the little things. An example is when people do not appreciate the taste of a certain food in America they throw it away or ask for it to be redone, where it is later thrown out. Few people stop to think how this will affect both the world and the government’s economy. Food waste, a specific highly critical issue in America resulting from the abundance of food. Waste is created when

Starch extraction yield enormous waste water that pose enormous environmental pollution unless well disposed. The annual starch residue waste in China is above 2milion tons sweet potato residues, which contain more than 10% of the total dry matter in sweet potato (Wang et al. 2016). The notable waste management methods include: landfills, incineration, recovery, plasma gasification, composting, energy recovery or avoidance, choice of method depends on countries level of development and availability/affordability of the technology (Grönroos 2010). Food wastes are rich in plant cell wall which consist of pectin, cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose. In effort to make use of Sweet potato residues, Yang et al, assessed then as possible substrate for tetracycline production (Yang and Ling 1989), in the recent past Lu et al, assessed bio-functional value of sweet potato residues in rats (Lu et al. 2015), moreover, the material was recently tested for lactic acid production (Yu-ting et al. 2016). Besides, the materials bioethanol production ability was assessed with good success (Wang et al. 2016).