Role Of Food Waste In America

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.

With the seemingly unstoppable growth of the world’s population and a projected global population of nine billion by 2050, the matter of whether or not there will be enough food to support the world’s populace is brought into question (Parfitt, et al., 2010). However, amid the concern for an adequate food supply, there is an immense amount of food waste produced by the world, including the United States. In fact, “according to the Natural Resources Defense Council as much as 40 percent of all food produced in the United States never gets eaten and typically ends up in the landfills or goes unharvested in the field “(King, 2015).

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.

Why is there so much food being wasted ? “Outdated foods, damaged and out of season items from supermarkets, collectively known as “unsaleables”, are sent to large clearing houses known as reclamation centers. These are most often operated by the supermarket chains themselves or wholesale distributors. Here, dangerous items such as broken jars and obviously contaminated or spoiled foods are disposed of. The remainder is sold into the salvage industry or donated to food banks.”(Arumugam) “A huge percent of food waste could be mitigated if more Americans were willing to buy bananas with brown spots, or if they understood they can eat yogurt two weeks after its sell by date.”( Harrison) Many people believe that you can’t eat something after its sell by date. The sell by date is for the store they can’t sell it after that time

We as individuals, one by one, person by person, little by little it all adds up and we all waste thousands of pounds of food every day without even realizing our wrong doings. We don’t notice it much, but the harm we are doing to the environment and our fellow roommates with whom we share this world with is immense. The U.S. alone is one of the major contributors to this problem. It so happens that the biggest offenders of this issue tend to be the wealthiest and more developed countries which of course includes the Unites States of America. The Unites States alone is responsible for wasting about 165 billion dollars’ worth of food. According to an article from sciencedaily.com that was published on Nov/24/2004 states that a study from the

Evidence: Eighty percent of the fresh water that we consume is used to grow food. Yet we end up throwing nearly half of that food away. "When you throw out a burger, that's the equivalent of taking a 90-minute shower, "says Dana Gunders from the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Throwing out an apple is like taking a seven-minute shower

One in seven American households lack a proper amount of food to maintain a healthy lifestyle. United States waste 133 billion pounds of food yearly. In 2010, supermarkets and grocery stores in the US tossed out 43 billion pounds, or $46.7 billion worth of food. (Dvorsky) Even with so many people in need of food it is unbelievable the amount of food going to waste at markets and restaurants. Given how many people go hungry in the United States each year, it is clear that an immediate change is necessary. There are many reasons why grocery stores should be forced to donate there pre-expired food, mainly to help those people not getting enough food, to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills.

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

I have been doing research on food waste in Athens, Ohio. The goal of my research is to find a plausible solution to the waste. To begin the gathering of information, I searched through the Ohio University ArticlesPlus Database to find any journals that I could find pertaining to the state of America’s food waste, how we can make a difference, and what has already been implemented to make a change. This was my way of looking at the amount of food wasted from a bigger perspective. I found four sources on the issue as a whole, to which I have included in my annotated bibliography. All sources have a primary focus on statistics of food waste in America, and finding a solution to the problem that we have created. The statistics

When I was little I was never able to finish my food, and my mom would always tell me that I should always finish my food because not everybody has a chance to eat. Food wasting in america is well talked about problem with $165 million dollars worth of food is being wasted every year. Food wasting in america can be caused by many things, but three main reasons are overstocking their produce, misconceptions with the due date, and business.

Fourteen percent of American households don’t know where their next meal will come from. That means if you had ten people in a room, one-two of them would be scared for what they’re going to eat that night. Those are sad odds, right? But even more depressing, twenty-five million people could be fed each year if we threw away only fifteen percent less of food than what we normally carelessly toss in the trash can. The concept of saving food is easier said than done. I’m not saying that everybody should always ship their half-eaten PB&J to needy orphans in Brazil, but we certainly do pitch more food than we used to. America is in a constant struggle with food waste.

It is often argued that food waste in the U.S is inevitable and businesses would not change their habits and that it is human nature to throw away food that seems unfresh. However, they fail to understand that a person’s sense to throw away food is heavily influenced by the expiration date and, and the use by date, in which the deregulation of these labels confuses businesses and consumers of when food should be thrown away. Businesses also throw away food based on standards on produce appearance, and how it appealing the produce looks to customer. In 2016, The Food Date Labeling Act was proposed to Congress but has not became a law yet. The bill establishes “ a uniform national system for date labeling that clearly distinguishes between

Household waste and the way Americans dispose of their trash is a huge source of food waste, if not the biggest. According to the article, Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050, American families throw out between 14 and 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy, costing the average family between $1,365 to $2,275 annually. A big factor of how America families are able to waste so much food is that food has become very cheap and readily available. Food costs less in the United States than nearly anywhere else in the world. As Brad Plumer said, “Most people reason, what's the big deal if some of it gets tossed?” They think there is no big harm in throwing away food because it was not that expensive, but in reality, it all just piles up. There is also a lot of confusion around expiration labels, with there being more than 10 different variations of expiration date phrasing. The different phrases tend to puzzle people and often prompt them to throw out food before its time. People think that "best if used by" means that food item cannot be eaten past that date or they will get sick. The same applies for "better if used by" and "sell by." People often just toss food out early and stay on the safe side. "Best if used by," usually applies mostly to non-perishable foods. The term describes product quality, where the product may not taste as good as it would if it were fresher but is still safe to eat or drink. The "use by" date

None (2015), " Food waste in America amounts to $162 billion and between 31% to 40% of American food supply goes to waste, primarily in homes, stores and restaurants, according to a new study.” (Food waste costs North America $162 billion). The article goes on to say that food waste causes a tremendous strain on the environment and that “approximately 30% of the fertilizer, 35% of the fresh water and 31% of the cropland” was used to develop the food that is eventually wasted (None, 2015). Knowing these facts it is time for a product such as the Rancid Remover to come out front and center. There is no competitive product currently on the market making the Rancid Remover a pioneer in its field.

Scientists continually study the issue of food wasting in America. It can have implications for both the environment and global food security. Food loss is usually considered unfit for human consumption. Meaning there is a decrease in the food’s quality and quantity (Parfitt et. al., 2010). Food Policy should help eradicate extreme poverty and malnutrition (Hanjra et al., 2010). By doing so, it would help reach humane goals our country has set in place, which in turn serves humanity in a positive way. Food security and health are often intertwined. People need the basic nutritional components of a healthy diet to survive (Godfray et al., 2010). Today, people still don’t have the access to the sufficient food while others are over-fed. New research gives us more reasons to clean our plates.