Dosomething.org defines food insecurity as “the lack of access, at times, to enough food for all household members.” Over 40 million Americans struggle with providing food for their families and/or themselves while 94% of thrown away food ends up in landfills or combustion areas, accumulating up to 37.6 million tons according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. This essay will provide information on the benefits and ways of reducing food waste with the harmful effects of an abundance of waste to humans and the environment.
Some benefits of lowering wasted food includes saving money from the reduction bought, conserving energy and resources, and assisting the community. Wasted foods add up to the cost of approximately $940 billion annually and unsurprisingly, internalized countries like America waste more food than developing nations. By targeting grocery retail waste, manufacturing waste and packaging wastes, and replacing those options with sustainable solutions, costs are most likely to reduce. Ways to reduce remains include making a shopping list. With a record of all the ingredients needed, you are unlikely to stray away from the list. It’s an easier way for you to choose, shop for, and prepare meals. Improper storage of produce leads to untouched feeds, but this problem isn’t necessarily about your actions, it’s about your knowledge. Many people are not properly educated on where certain vegetables and fruit should be kept. While food loss occurs more often than not at the production stage due to insufficient skills, natural calamities, lack of proper infrastructure and poor practices, food waste occurs when edible food is deliberately discarded by consumers after they fail to plan out meals properly and store food until it is spoiled or pass its expiration date. People, mostly Americans, have pride and standards when it comes to produce.
Plants seen with “flaws” will be tossed out, without any regards of its ability to still feed. And while you may think that fermenting and pickling is a new hipster trend, techniques like this have been used for many generations. Pickling, drying canning, etc. are all curing methods that make food last longer. Composting is a practice where natural unused items are recycled to make fresh soil which can continue a cycle of reusing and gardening, adding to healthier food choices and without packaging trash. There are many people all over the United States and around the world who are starving due to poverty that results from lack of jobs or because of low salaries. The people who are most affected are smallholder farmers, most coming from developing countries, who depend of their own surplus of crops. “The hungry season” is known as the period before a harvest which can be extremely difficult evolving into starvation. With donations of foods no longer needed to homeless shelter and food banks, we can solve a complex problem with a simple solution.
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The earth right now is in dire need of a change. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are the main source of climate change and global warming, which is causing ocean levels to rise, more sweltering temperatures and dry spells in many zones of the world. The disposing excess scraps increases methane emissions, heightening your carbon footprint. With increased urbanization around the world, changes in consumption patterns and food distribution systems are presenting increasing challenges for management of food wastes. In the short and long term, municipalities are paying the price for this wasted food: in collection, transportation, and disposal costs and in the amount of land being utilized for landfills.
Regarding the long-term effects, we will all pay the additional price with the downfall of our environment. Over half of wastes happens amid production or “upstream”, yield handling and capacity stage and the remaining occurs amid the handling, distribution and utilization, known as the downstream stage. With agriculture accounting for 70% of the water used throughout the world, food waste also represents a great waste in freshwater and ground water resources. If you look at land usage, about 1.4 billion hectares of land which is around 33% of the world’s complete agribusiness land territory, is used to grow food that is wasted. Millions of gallons of oil are also used to produce, transport and cook food that has not even made it near a human mouth.
With all things considered, food waste is an important than just a problem in today’s society, it is crime against yourself, others and the environment. There is not enough being done to prevent the harmful environment repercussions. With a little amount of effort, food waste will be a thing of the past.
