What is food waste?
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Did you know that as much as 40% of US food supply at the retail and consumer level goes uneaten and end up in landfills?
Food waste is defined as the loss of food occurring at the retail or consumer level. This means that any food that you or your local supermarket throws away is considered food waste. Food waste isn’t just a technical term though, it is a serious issue. Think of all those resources put into making the food just for you, all of that effort, resources, and your money end up in the garbage. Additionally, after the food ends up in the trash can, it goes to landfills where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas, which contributes to global warming. Every day the U.S. wastes from 30 to 40 percent of all food produced according to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and other sources. This means that the resources that went into that 30 to 40 percent are all dumped into the garbage, wasting millions of dollars. However it’s not just the money, we are wasting precious natural resources like water and unnecessarily cutting down forests to make way for farmland; the environment is seriously getting damaged. In addition, the number one component of landfills today is food waste at 21% (Cited from Waste Management) and when it decays there, it produces methane, a powerful gas that contributes considerably to global warming. Since this world is low on resources and environmentally fragile we should eliminate this constant problem. Thousands of people are starving; why not get this food to them. In the end, we could reduce our carbon footprint, preserve our resources, cut down on environmentally bad actions, and reduce starvation. |
How does food get wasted?
Food gets wasted in many ways. In developing countries, most food gets wasted before it reaches the consumer. Droughts, poor equipment, the disconnect between companies, etc. all reduce the amount of food getting to the consumer. In industrialized countries, however, it is mostly the consumer that wastes the food. (Cited from UNEP) We usually buy more than we need and we discard the leftovers. When it comes to replenishing our food supplies, we push the old stuff back and place the new ones in front therefore causing us not to eat the old ones. Surprisingly, a quarter of wasted food is those that are thrown out with the last bit of packaging; they have been stuck to the bottom and nobody bothered to get them out. Also, many fruits and vegetables are rejected by both companies and consumers because they are irregular. (Cited from http://www.selinajuul.com/index.html ) Most of all though, people take food for granted and just do not understand the effects of throwing away food. In industrialized countries food is cheap, so many people do not appreciate the value of it. If we all understood how precious food is, most consumer-based wastage of food would've been reduced. Grocery stores waste food as well. Stores have to throw away all the spoiling food that the customers didn't buy. Restaurants and institutions all suffer from the consumer not eating all the food or taking it away. All in all, food gets wasted in many ways and it would take the efforts of all of us to eliminate this problem.
Food gets wasted in many ways. In developing countries, most food gets wasted before it reaches the consumer. Droughts, poor equipment, the disconnect between companies, etc. all reduce the amount of food getting to the consumer. In industrialized countries, however, it is mostly the consumer that wastes the food. (Cited from UNEP) We usually buy more than we need and we discard the leftovers. When it comes to replenishing our food supplies, we push the old stuff back and place the new ones in front therefore causing us not to eat the old ones. Surprisingly, a quarter of wasted food is those that are thrown out with the last bit of packaging; they have been stuck to the bottom and nobody bothered to get them out. Also, many fruits and vegetables are rejected by both companies and consumers because they are irregular. (Cited from http://www.selinajuul.com/index.html ) Most of all though, people take food for granted and just do not understand the effects of throwing away food. In industrialized countries food is cheap, so many people do not appreciate the value of it. If we all understood how precious food is, most consumer-based wastage of food would've been reduced. Grocery stores waste food as well. Stores have to throw away all the spoiling food that the customers didn't buy. Restaurants and institutions all suffer from the consumer not eating all the food or taking it away. All in all, food gets wasted in many ways and it would take the efforts of all of us to eliminate this problem.