Every human being impacts the world they live in, especially Americans. Americans live for what’s new and what’s in; in The Wastemkers, Vance Packer identifies this wastefulness as a part of the American culture. Vance Packer may have written this book over 50 years ago, but the issue still applies to now. Not only do Americans participate in this wasteful culture, but they also take pride in it: boasting about every penny they spend and how ‘new is always better’, but what they fail to realize is this wasteful culture is exceptionally harmful in various ways. In the U.S., we are blessed with a sufficient amount of resources, especially food. Food is literally at everyone’s fingertips; people can order food efficiently off of their cellphones, and due to this abundance, it has caused many Americans to be very wasteful with their food. According to feedingamerica.org, “An estimated 25 – 40% of food grown, processed and transported in the US will never be consumed.” Not only that, but rotting food causes more greenhouses gases to be released in the air …show more content…
This is made very obvious by things like commercials that encourage one to purchase certain products immediately, even though what one may have may be perfectly fine. Buying and repurchasing as many items as you can is strongly encouraged by the media, even if it is not necessary. One can never have enough and things like Black Friday are a proof of this. Every single year, people spend enormous amounts of money on Black Friday–almost putting themselves in debt--to buy what’s new: as if stores are not selling the same things they have been selling all year and that the only good deals that exist are on Black Friday. In America, people are being fooled to believe that what they are buying is always valuable, but what one needs to realize is that value comes from its
“Waste” is a short essay in which Wendell Berry critically analyzes the growing epidemic of trash that is polluting the nation’s land, waterways, and the air. Berry explains to the readers how the remnants of floods and litter that leave farmlands scattered with trash, makes more work for the farmers who have to rid their land of the trash before they can use it. Along with the floods, roads and highways also lead to a barrage of garbage from people who are too lazy or ignorant to take proper care of their garbage, which Berry claims leads to “. . . a constant precipitation of cans, bottles, the plastic-ware containers of fast food joints, soiled plastic diapers, and sometimes whole bags of garbage,” (Waste 1) along the edges of their fields. The garbage of the country continues to be a burden for everyone, whether it impacts them directly or not. Although it would be impossible to eliminate garbage completely from the country, the waste could be greatly reduced. Most of today’s trash is a consequence of the laziness of American society.
I agree with Hill’s argument that one tends to buy more than what they use. I, for instance, am one of those individuals. Hill mentions this by saying “Members of every socioeconomic bracket can and do deluge themselves with products” (Hill 1). For instance, I remember when I received my first payment from babysitting. I was thrilled with the idea of finally being able to rely on myself to buy all the things I wanted. So, I headed towards the mall and went on a shopping spree. As a result, I arrived home with bags of merchandise as I unloaded them I became aware I had bought a lot of things I didn’t need. As the days passed I became conscious of how I didn’t use much of what I had bought but bought them because I liked the idea of being able to buy whatever I wanted without having anyone tell me what I couldn’t buy. Not only does Hills argument make sense but also makes an important
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).
Eighner wants to confront his audience about how wasteful we actually are. The three main ideas; what is safe to eat, scavengers vs. scroungers, and the stories told by items, all tie into Eighner’s overall theme of trying to open everyone’s eyes to how wasteful we are. Many people do not realize what they are actually throwing away because most of us have more than we need. We don’t have room in our fridge so we just throw good items away that are perfectly good. We also throw away more than just good food. Many people in America throw away practically brand new clothes instead of taking the time to go donate them at a shelter. Even I as a college student do this. You need more room so it just easier to toss it into the trash. Although it may help someone who
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
Americans account for only five percent of the world’s population, but create half of the globe’s solid waste. Americans toss out the equivalent of $165 billion in food each year. All of that time, energy, and freshwater- for nothing. How can the United States, being so small in number, produce so much waste? Brad Plumer from the Washington Post documented a recent report from the Natural Resources Defense Council that attempts to track America’s food, from “farm to fork.” Plumer breaks the report down into seven different wasteful places along the American food production line: Farming, post-harvest and packing, processing and distribution, retail and grocery stores, food service and restaurants, households, and disposal.
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 reading the article “This Apple Could Have Been Saved” by Kristen Lewis and Adee Braun it makes you realize just how much America and all of the people living here have been taught so many bad habits with conserving food. People in America have been taught by not only their families but by society that it is okay to waste food. These habits have affected so many things on earth including pollution and starvation. One example from the article is the picture on page 15 of a landfill covered in half eaten food and trash that could have been composted,donated, or even given to animals. All of these problems could be reduced or even ended if people just listened to the people around the world pushing and even trying to help reduce the amount
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
Inhabitants expend their everlasting desires because it’s enjoyable to them, for fame, and overwhelming. These reasons have effectively changed America itself. It creates an image how money is blown and why. Our entire civilization now rests on the assumption that, no matter what else happens, we will all continue to buy lots and lots of things. To some extent this act will remain immune to the rational solution. What makes you consume so much? Do you think you consume a lot more than you
While it doesn’t have a perfect answer there are simple changes that can be made to reduce food waste, “Cutting down on food waste across the country is a challenge because losses happen at every stage of the supply chain, experts say. The problem starts on farms with excess crops. It extends to supersized restaurant portions, grocery stores' quick turnover, and Americans' tendency to overbuy.” To keep produce from farms from going directly to the trash, there has to be an increased focus on quality of produce rather than appearance, “Another top contributor to food waste in the U.S. is farms, says Bloom. Agricultural producers regularly leave misshapen vegetables and discolored fruits to rot on the ground. Why? The food industry has strict standards for produce's shape, size, and color. Harvesting fruits and vegetables that don't meet those standards can be financially draining for farmers. Pickers skip over other crops if they suspect the produce will no longer be at peak freshness by the time it reaches stores.” For food that does end up wasted there are ways for people to dispose of it differently. One way that keeps food out of landfills is composting, “Composting is an alternative to disposing of food in a landfill. Certain elements of foods can be turned into compost to feed and nourish the soil, helping to cultivate new growth. Park and recreation agencies, like those in Lansing, Michigan, have utilized composting bins to re-purpose the food for their community gardens. This provides the additional benefit of educating youth about the process of how food is grown.” Finally consumer have to take it upon themselves to only buy what they will eat and to use all leftovers instead of tossing them into the
Americans throw away billions of pounds of food, worth billions of dollars and enough to feed millions of people each year. Wasted food is the single largest component of American landfills. Every year, around 40 percent of all food goes unconsumed in the United States. This amounts to Americans squandering as much as $218 billion annually growing, processing and transporting food that never gets eaten. That is a fairly large waste of resources considering all that freshwater and land, all that fertilizer and energy used was for nothing. ‘Washington Post’. Even Europe does a better job of curtailing food waste and food waste in Europe alone could feed 200 million hungry people! Food waste is often described as a “farm-to-fork” problem because produce is lost in fields, warehouses, packaging, distribution, supermarkets, restaurants and fridges. Why? We purchase too many food products, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and we buy what is not expected.
We know that Europe wastes a lot of food but how much does the USA waste? “Well the USA waste about 60 million tons per year” (Chandler) Now that is equal to about “165 billion dollars per year” (Reuters) and that’s a lot of money to waste on food when we can use it for other things. But with the UK wasting almost a fourth of what the USA is wasting which is sad because in “Europe the UK is the highest country to waste food” (Yeung). So, the USA waste 4 times that of the UK which is a lot of food and that food ends up in garbage dumps where it will rot or get eaten by scavengers. The only positive to that is that we are feeding wild animals that are smart enough to get into a garbage dump. Now why does this food get put into dumps? Well its simple and that is its reaching the best by date or looks unappealing to display. The USA needs to reduce the amount of food it is wasting because that food is putting a negative effect on the environment and is taking up space. Now there
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