Role Of Food Waste In America

This paper will examine the problem of food waste in the United States. Firstly, this paper will describe what food waste is, and why food waste in the American society is an immense issue that needs to be addressed. In addition, it will address the consequences of food waste and the possible problems that this issue may bring in the future. Secondly, the paper will discuss three policy solutions that would help solve the problem of food waste in the United States: provide an enhanced tax deduction for corporations that choose to donate their food to the food banks, performing an extensive study that covers every single aspect of food waste in the current food system, and require every citizen to compost their food waste. Afterwards, it will analyze the pros and cons, and the hypothetical strengths and vulnerabilities of each policy solution. Lastly, this paper will discuss personal opinions on the issue of 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.

One of the country’s that produces the most food and wastes the most food is the United States. A major reason is because food is cheaper in the United States than anywhere else in the world. Fruits and vegetables have the highest wastage rates of any food. The obsession with the

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

The United States alone wastes enormous amounts of food. According to Rethink Food Waste Through Economics and Data (ReFED), a “nonprofit think tank,” for the amount of food in the United States that is wasted or lost, the “total economic value” is “estimated at $218 billion” (“Food Waste”). Not just thousands, but billions of dollars worth of food wasted. Along with this, ReFED says “retailers, manufacturers, and government food agencies can save 400,000 tons of food and $1.8 billion annually by standardizing date labels on food products” (“Food Waste”). This shows how doing something as simple as changing food labels can save tons of food.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.