Food Waste Position/Proposal
By Natalie Parisi
An Introduction to the Problem
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.
Being Aware is a Personal Responsibility
So is the problem food waste itself, or that food is being thrown out when there are alternative options? Or is it that we just don’t stop to consider there is a problem? My concern is that it’s not a priority for most people. In addition, there are
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(Sklamberg, par.3)
Claiming Ownership
In our homes waste caused because we don’t pay attention; we are inattentive and ignorant. For some of us, it just isn’t important. (Jones, Dive!)
Wasting food is a bad habit that affects all of society and we continue to implicate ourselves in the problem. Of the total of food loss that is going on about 40 percent is in the household. Overall a typical household of four loses about 600 dollars in food a year. (Jones 11)
Like many things, we just don’t bother or we don’t feel that we have the time. We aren’t realizing how much it affects each of us. Have you ever taken the time to stop and think about it?
Thinking about it, I realize that every day I throw something away that could be saved and eaten later. When I take the trash out there are a number of food items that don’t need to be there. After we finish dinner I am wiping food off of plates and realizing that I’ve made too much. Every time I clean out the fridge there is food going into the garbage because I waited too long to use it. Whatever the reason, I realize that it does affect me in many ways and it’s constantly happening in my home.
Looking at the Impacts of Food Waste
Food Waste affects our pocket book because we are essentially throwing out money. At the same time it is impacting us financially it’s also playing a huge role in the problems we see happening to our environment.
The US Environment Protection Agency said, “Generating food waste
we’re wasteful. In order to find solutions for our trash problem, we must first admit that we are
The book, American Wasteland: How American Throw Away Nearly Half of Its Food, written by Jonathan Bloom, deeply describes the situation of food waste in America. The author, Bloom, starts off the book by mentioning that each day America squanders enough food tone fill up the Rose Bowl, the football stadium in Pasadena, California (xi). Bloom even brings out a specific number to prove that how much food were wasted in the United States, which is 160 billion pounds annually (xii). From that description and figure, we can see that food waste problem is really serious today.
The idea of wasting food is terrible idea. We all need food to survive and live on this planet. But, the problem is that some people just doesn't know how valuable food is because, we can think of ways to give it all away. There are starving people and there are 3 reasons food is being wasted.
The USDA claims that each year, 25.9 million tons of America’s food is thrown away, the equivalent to a quarter of the total amount produced. Nationally, the wasted food is a damaging financial setback, amounting to $1 billion just to get rid of during a time of ascending food prices, nonetheless (Oliver, 2007). Food waste has skyrocketed since 1970 at an astonishing 50% increase rate, yet according to the FAO, one-sixth of America doesn’t get enough to eat.
About fifty million Americans are not certain when their next meal will be and in a society filled with food insecurities, the fact there this so much food waste is perplexing (King, 2015). Around the world, about two billion tons of food is wasted through production, transportation, distribution and retail, and post consumer (Glickman 2013). This amount of food
While everyone may love to go out and enjoy a fine meal with friends and family, most will never stop to think the process of how the food came about, or the production thereof. John Oliver’s piece on “Food Waste” outlines all the problems of food waste and how they can impact society, animals, nature, and even the farmers who harvest the produce. America and its businesses should try to decrease the amount of food being wasted. By doing so, not only are we a contributing factor to help reduce waste, save time and money, but we are also aiding the less-fortunate in a society, while still saving natural resources and the planet as a whole.
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.
However, I feel like this topic needs to be address by the federal government and be discussed within our communities, since people are clueless about the topic and they need to be aware of the situation. Also, I feel like the government need to create a law for big food corporation to find ways to lower amount of food wastage during production, since that is when food is also wasted, encourage people to re-use food – feeding people on need, feed livestock – food unfit for humans, or recycle food – compost food
Have you thought about how much food is wasted? Just think about your supper last night did you throw any food away if you did have you ever thought about where it goes or what happens to it? Many people don’t realize that there is a lot of food that is thrown away every year. Not only do people in their homes throw away food but grocery stores also throw out a lot of food too. “Most people believe that grocery stores should donate their food instead of throwing it away but the reason why many stores don’t donate their food is because many stores either don’t want to get sued or many grocery stores don’t know that they should be donating it.” ( Jacobs)
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.
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.
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
Why do we as citizens waste food in a world full of hungry people? Food waste has become a huge worldwide problem, especially in this generation. Many foods in the United States is being wasted while others are having trouble to put food on the table for their own family. Food waste is usually being discarded and not eaten. For many food waste doesn’t come across their minds because they don’t struggle with buying the groceries, no matter the price. We do not just waste food while affecting the global warming, but we also burn the planet’s resources. The world produces enough food, but if we keep buying and throwing away the food without being eaten, we will not be able to feed ourselves and families anymore. One of the effects of food waste on the environment cause to produce an abundant amount of methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas 21 times times worse than co2. If methane was to leak into the air, it would absorb the sun’s heat. The closer you are to your ingredients the less greenhouse gas will be emitted delivering them, the fresher they will be and the longer they will last. The most obvious effect of food waste is the causes of people going hungry. People could choose not to buy extra food so they would not need to throw it away. Every once a while, people could open a sheltered food for the homeless if they had additional food than they needed. Throwing too much food can cause bad air for us when the trash gets burned. I am very antipathy towards wasting
There are countless issues that pose danger to the environmental health of the Earth, but one of the most often overlooked problems is food waste. Food waste contributes to droughts as well as other serious economic and climate ramifications. However, there are many things that can be done to resolve this pressing issue.
In America, we are constantly surrounded by abundance. Food is a prevalent waste item in the United States. Most people do not think about the resources it took to produce, transport, and prepare the food they throw away. Our food waste is not actually just trash; it is the key to human survival. Ordinary consumers can change the future with one small action: to stop wasting food. Actions at the individual level can decrease food waste and feed those in need. Twenty five percent of purchased food is thrown away. (TED) Often this is because food has spoiled, but it can be for other reasons such as oversupply, misread labels, or individual consumer shopping and eating habits. http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3347e/i3347e.pdf