The World Should Be Mandatory

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

Much of this trash ends up in the ocean harming not only marine life, but us too. However, this is not only happening in America it’s happening all over the world with China at 8.82 million metric tons of mismanaged waste. All this waste if caught in a gyre, can lead to one of the garbage patches. This has been happening since we started using plastic but it the garbage patches were discovered in the early 1990’s. We keep throwing trash away that keeps being misplaced, then it ends up in the oceans with the rest of the trash. I propose multiple solutions, to enforce plastic bag ban and to enforce recycling. California has banned the use of plastic bags, meaning that if you do use them a fine will be put in place. Environment California explained how before the plastic bag ban California used up to 19 billion plastic bags each year with less than five percent being recycled. However, we can change that. By using less plastic bags we harm the ocean less. Another solution is to each week collect each household’s trash, per pound of trash found in the recycling bin provided by the city should be a $11 fine. Tiffany Edmonds, Solid Waste Management Department spokeswoman, explained why they started the fine “ It is an attempt to change behavior. The fine covers the cost of sending a garbage collection truck to the house to pick up the contaminated recycling bin” this will encourage people to recycle. Since the plastic

Everyday, throughout the world, restaurants throw away large amounts of uneaten food. Public Health laws prevent them from re-serving or reusing this food, and, for similar reasons, they cannot simply give it away to hungry people. We opted to review this as our messy situation due to the impact that this has on people and the environment.

How many times have you thrown away a half eaten apple or a bag of chips that you just could not finish? Now multiply that by 318.9 million give or take a few million. In the story “This Apple Could Have Been Saved” Kristin Lewis states that many Americans waste much more food than we should. Two ideas for reducing food waste are one what to do before and in the process of eating, and two what to do after eating.Three ways to reduce food waste before and in the process of eating. One way is to use smaller plates. If you use a big plate then you will be misled into believing that you would be able to eat it all. So next meal you are going to eat just grab a smaller plate and eventually it will just become a reflex. So why is this important, it is important because it will have people pile less on their plates which means less food be wasted plus you can always just get seconds. The second way is to eat ugly produce. Grocery stores throw away one-third of all the food it produces 133 billion pounds of food each year. Most of that is produce that looks different or has one little bruise. So next time you go

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.

To begin with, over filling plates in the cafeteria is a common problem leading to an increase in food waste at Trine University. Getting a portion too big to finish in one sitting will leave food being sent to the trash instead of being eaten by someone else. The article “Portion Size Me: Plate-Size Induced Consumption Norms and Win-Win Solutions for Reducing Food Intake and Waste” states, several studies in the role that visual consumption plays when preparing meals on different sized dinnerware. Study one in the article states, “We contend that dinnerware provides a visual anchor of an appropriate fill-level, which in turn, serves as a consumption norm” (Wansink and van Ittersum ). This quote states when people fill up their dinner plates

Sometimes your eyes get bigger than your stomach and you don't realize until you're eating your triple cheese burger with your large side of fries and jumbo milkshake, when it hits you, that you shouldn't of ordered so much. You end up not eating it all, forgetting to get a to-go box and the waitress throws it all away. Little did you know that that was a portion of 1.3 of the billion of food wasted in the world each year. That is 24% of the water used for agriculture.

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.

In the movie Wall-E, the setting is in the future where the Earth is so polluted that all humans were forced to leave their home because the Earth was unable to sustain life. For example, in the beginning of Wall-E it shows where Wall-E lives, which is in a giant area full of trash. The trash is layered and layered on top of itself, forming a heap of debris. This scene was eye-opening to a lot of people, because sadly, in this Earth some of our garbage buildup is comparable to the examples in Wall-E. People just think that littering once may do no harm, but in reality, it adds up. Piece after piece, the littering adds up.

How many times have you gone to a restaurant and the amount of food on the plate was either really wimpy or enough to feed two or three people? According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (2013), the majority of restaurants use a portion amount when plating food to be served. As a child, I was taught to eat everything on my plate and battle with my weight on a daily basis. If I received a plate full of spaghetti, I would eat it all. In

How often does one finish everything that is on his/her plate? Many consumers often order more than they can eat. One’s eyes are bigger than his/her stomach. People will order multiple appetizing items from

Looking around the kitchen, there are long forgotten leftovers, smelly meat, spoiled milk, rotten fruit and vegetables, an opened bag of chips now stale, and a plethora of miscellaneous food that will only end up in the trash. There is one recurring theme in most people’s kitchens: food waste. Food waste happens when food is intentionally discarded at all stages of the food supply chain. We are all guilty of wasting food, whether it be from not knowing or possibly not caring about the massive consequences of our actions. According to a recent study, 40% of food gets wasted in America (Gunders 4). This alone demonstrates the enormous impact of food waste not only on society but on the environment. People do not realize the massive carbon footprint that develops from wasting food, how harmful it is to the environment, or how it contributes to climate change. The problem is present at all stages of the food supply chain, and needs to be handled appropriately with farmers, workers, retail, and consumers. Although most people do not think twice about tossing uneaten food in the trash, this simple action is devastating to the Earth, and measures need to be taken in order for food waste reduction to happen.

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