Food Waste By Kyle Rabin

The University of Arizona’s “Garbage Project” study approximates the number closer to 50% when calculating in the 27 million tons thrown away by supermarkets, restaurants, and convenient stores alone adding up to an additional $30 billion. Retailers refuse to report their waste in compliance with company policy and food is sent to compactors where it becomes unusable and ends up in landfills. Globally, the FAO has declared approximately one-third of the world’s entire food supply produced for consumer consumption (1.3 billion tons) is wasted annually (Buzby & Hyman et al., 2012). Jean C. Buzby describes the entire lifecycle of food (including food waste) having “negative externalities that arise throughout the

There is enough food waste in America to fill up 730 football stadiums. Yet, ironically there were almost 50 million people who live in households that are food-insecure in 2013. Thus, it is critically important to help reduce (or at the very least reevaluate) the amount of food that is wasted so it can be used to help those who can’t always afford it, or, help to reduce the impact of methane released by landfills, or, help to use less resources gone into making the produce.

Food waste is an environmental, economic, and ethical problem that can lead to less calorie intake and unnecessary damage of our assets. Individual behavior can redesign food waste at home and lead to bigger changes in the ecosystem. The problem is Americans throw out more food than glass, paper, and plastic. Also about 25% of food grown, processed, and transported in the US will never be consumed. When food is disposed in a landfill it rots and becomes a significant source of methane— a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.

The fast food industry has taken over the world. Everywhere where people are there is bound to be at least one restaurant where the convenient, contagious, and cheap food is sold. Throughout this book Eric Schlosser, the author, keeps a negative tone towards the fast food industry and shows his readers how it has shaped the world to this day and how it will continue to shape the world, not always in the best way. His arguments all tie back to one major idea that he kept throughout the book which is that the fast food industry is a powerful force and one that needs to be reckoned with.

Think about how much water is used by farmers to grow their produce. When water is not naturally provided through rain, or resouvers that are fed by rivers/streams, and ditch water, it has to come from somewhere else.

The article which I chose to summarize is “Clean Your Plate. There are People in Starving in Africa!”, written by Timothy W. Jones. This article addresses the excessive wastefulness of food and resources in the United States. I particularly agree with how the author describes, not only the amount of food that is thrown out, but also the amount of money that it translates to. I would recommend this article to businesses, in particular, as it could be an eye-opener. The author examines three different perspectives of wastefulness: Food loss in general, losses as they relate to the farming industry and the wastefulness of food in the retail food industry. The author’s purpose of this article is not only to highlight the fiscal irresponsibility

Specter uses outside sources such as, Eric Schlosser who wrote Fast-food Nation in 2001. By including outside sources Specter is able to credit his information and make sure that he has accurate and compelling information. To provide even more accuracy, he even includes quotes from other authors such as this quote, “In 2012, companies produced enough regular soda to supply every single person in America, regardless of age, with nearly thirty gallons,’’ from Marion Nestle who the recently published book Soda Politics. He selects to express information about both classic fast food and new healthy fast food in order for the reader to understand both sides of the spectrum. As for public affairs, Specter also makes sure to incorporate important facts into this article to credit his argument that obesity is prevalent in America. Specter states that, “People throughout the world are getting fatter” (Specter, 1). This is an important issue that needs to be stopped. By creating healthy fast food, America is working toward addressing obesity and increasing alternative options to food places such as Burger King and McDonalds. America has seen the largest rate of “globesity,” the World Health Organization refers to the epidemic as the growing obesity rate in America (Bentley, 1). In the United States, per-capita calorie consumption rose from 2,109 calories a day in 1970 to 2,568 calories in 2010, according to the Department of Agriculture. While, the average man today weighs a hundred

According to the article "Wasted Food = Wasted Water" by Kyle Rabin, the amount of wasted water, influenced by wasted food, is "by one clever comparison" roughly the same amount of water that is found in Lake Erie (Kyle). While this comparison is indeed clever, allowing the reader to more accurately imagine the water that is wasted, it is saddening to think of the huge amount of water that is literally put down the drain every year. All of this water could be saved if we cut down the amount of food waste we produce each year, in the US alone.

Food waste is defined as food that can be consumed but for whatever reason goes uneaten. It was first addressed in 1977 when a report was sent to congress from the General Accounting Office. Within the report the United States Department of Agriculture’s role in food waste as well as several other aspects of food waste such as pollution and growing populations are still relevant today were spoken of (Buzby et al. 1). However in the years following the publication of this report, food waste has not lessened and instead has exponentially worsened from twenty percent in 1977 to forty percent as of 2012 (Finn et al.

In the first place, wasted food is the reason for large percentage of the wasted water. It takes way more water than people think to grow crops. That crispy salad, or those bright orange carrot take gallons upon gallons of water to produce, yet we just toss them in the trash. Eliza Barclay in the article "When You Waste Food, You're Wasting Tons Of Water, Too" states that "Inside the 1.3 billion tons of food wasted every year worldwide is 45 trillion gallons of water." She also said that, "This represents a staggering 24 percent of all water used for

Not only is the agriculture business profoundly responsible for pollution of Earth’s oceans, but it also uses 80-90% of the global water supply (Andersen and Kuhn). As of 2016, there are nearly 783 million people who do not have access to clean water, and over six million deaths a year related to water disasters and diseases (UNESCO Water Corp). Despite this daunting fact, meat industries in America alone produced 25.8 billion pounds of beef in 2013 (North American Meat Institute). It takes about 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. So, in 2013 alone, American meat industries consumed about 6.5 trillion gallons of water (Andersen and Kuhn).

According to the National Resources Defense Council, on average an American family tosses away approximately 25

In the United States, wasted food is a 165 billion dollar problem. America wasted 33.79

Food waste is something that affects us all. It happens anywhere food has a presence; the grocery store, restaurants, in our homes, at schools, on farms, in production and even in transportation. It affects people everywhere; those living oceans away and those that share our boarders, people living across America and throughout Utah, businesses and households alike.

An article published by NPR quotes Craig Hansen, a big voice in the food waste crisis. The article states;""For instance," he says, "the moisture in food lost immediately post-harvest or during open storage will likely evaporate." In other words, that water ends up back in the atmosphere. But that doesn't mean it'll return to the place from whence it came. Now that food is crisscrossing the globe, the water-stressed regions that produce fruits and vegetables aren't necessarily going to get their water back." This highlights the danger in irresponsible food waste; there will be serious consequences to the already limited freshwater supply on Earth if the problem is not resolved in a timely fashion.