Imagine for a moment that you had a superpower similar to Ned, the Pie-maker, from the hit television series, Pushing Daises. This superpower is very unique, you see, if you touch something that has died, it will come back to life completely refreshed, but there is a catch. Unless you touch the dead object again within a minute, something of similar proportion must take its place in death. Now, think about all of the wonderful things you could do with this power. You could bring your dead loved ones back from the grave, but it would come at the cost of another's life. There is something else we could use this magnificent power on with more minor repercussions and to solve a world problem: food. Think about how much food goes to waste per day due to natural rotting. The superpower can reverse this at the cost of something similar. A flower, perhaps? Imagine touching a molded strawberry and it reverting to its beautiful, red, and juicy state, and all that has to die is a dandelion. Sadly, since we do not live in a world with superpowers, we can't bring food back from the dead, but we can save it from going to waste in the first place.
Food waste is one of the biggest problems in the world, and sadly it is something many people don't tend to think about. Worldwide, one third of all food is wasted. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, we waste about 1.3 billion tons of food per year. While not all wasted food is edible, a lot of it is and such waste needs to stop.
We the people of the world have no right to complain about world hunger when large sports stadiums throw away all excess cooked meat at the end of an event. I've seen bags of good hotdogs and hamburgers tossed into the trash like they are inedible. It is waste like this that causes world hunger. Since the meat has been cooked, it can't travel far to places like Africa, but that doesn't stop it from being able to be donated to local food shelters. They aren't going to go bad in a matter of hours, though that's what many people believe.
One of the biggest wasters in today's culture is the supermarket. On average, supermarket chains will waste about 1,300 pounds of food per employee. A typical chain has around 2.5 million employees. The amount of waste adds up fast! Why not just donate the food? Good question. Some sources will say that they do donate their food goods. Which is true, to an extent. Most supermarkets donate their unsold breads, muffins, and other baked goods, but tend to avoid donating meats, fish, and produce, which attribute for the highest amount of waste. It is also some of the most expensive. Why is the waste for these specific products so high? The answer is quite simple: sell by dates.
The labels on food can be incredibly misleading. In almost all cases the "sell by" date only indicates the quality and not the safety of the food. Just because a food has reached its sell by date doesn't mean it is inedible, it just means it may not taste as well as it did a few days ago. While millions are starving for food, taste cannot be huge concern. These foods that are being thrown out can stilled be served. Don't judge a product by its label.
I find it funny that today, we as a nation are incredibly frugal and money conscious, yet in food waste alone, we are throwing away approximately 165 billion dollars per year. This could be money spent on education or job growth, but instead we decide an edible food is bad and send it to a landfill. People tend to go off the deep end when buying food. They buy more than needed, so when the excess isn't eaten, it gets pitched. As a culture, we need to learn moderation. This alone will reduce money wasted on excess food.
All is not lost though. There are some great new technological developments that are paving the way to food preservation. There are food tattoos being developed. These tattoos are edible patches that detect bacteria levels which can be traced through your Smartphone to tell you if the food is still good. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing ethylene sensors to install into supermarkets that sense when produce is beginning to decay. And finally there is an effort known as Zero Percent. This group helps restaurants and
supermarkets find deals on food; sends alerts to local food banks to inform them; and helps donate. If food loses are cut by only fifteen percent more than 25 million families could be fed.
In 2012 so far, we have wasted over 76 billion pounds of food. This number grows an astonishing amount each second, but it is not only food that's being wasted. Let's follow the chain backwards. Ten percent of the total U.S. energy budget is spent getting food to the table. Fifty percent of U.S. land is used to produce food along with eighty percent of our fresh water supply. How much of that food is eaten? Only sixty percent. Forty percent of food and the resources used to produce that food are lost.
By wasting food, we are not only hurting ourselves but also those without food, our economy, and even our environment. By sending food waste to landfills, more greenhouse gases that cause global warming are being released. We can't all be Ned, the Pie-Maker, and bring food back to life, but we can still do our part by urging our local markets to donate their excess foods to local charities, by being more frugal in buying foods, and doing our best to prevent food from being wasted. Just think about it, it's our own loss. Be brave and save.
Check out these awesome sources about food waste!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/postlive/in-united-states-theres-a-lot-of-food-being-wasted/2012/06/14/gJQAmk9JoV_video.html
Great Video with some good info about the food waste problem
http://www.nrdc.org/food/wasted-food.asp
Article talking about the environmental impacts of food waste in the US
http://earth911.com/news/2011/10/13/help-your-supermarket-cut-food-waste/
Awesome article about food waste in supermarkets
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/food-waste-americans-throw-away-food-study_n_1819340.html
The economic impacts of food waste in the US
http://endhunger.org/food_waste.htm
A site tracking the amount of food wasted in the world
Food waste is one of the biggest problems in the world, and sadly it is something many people don't tend to think about. Worldwide, one third of all food is wasted. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, we waste about 1.3 billion tons of food per year. While not all wasted food is edible, a lot of it is and such waste needs to stop.
We the people of the world have no right to complain about world hunger when large sports stadiums throw away all excess cooked meat at the end of an event. I've seen bags of good hotdogs and hamburgers tossed into the trash like they are inedible. It is waste like this that causes world hunger. Since the meat has been cooked, it can't travel far to places like Africa, but that doesn't stop it from being able to be donated to local food shelters. They aren't going to go bad in a matter of hours, though that's what many people believe.
One of the biggest wasters in today's culture is the supermarket. On average, supermarket chains will waste about 1,300 pounds of food per employee. A typical chain has around 2.5 million employees. The amount of waste adds up fast! Why not just donate the food? Good question. Some sources will say that they do donate their food goods. Which is true, to an extent. Most supermarkets donate their unsold breads, muffins, and other baked goods, but tend to avoid donating meats, fish, and produce, which attribute for the highest amount of waste. It is also some of the most expensive. Why is the waste for these specific products so high? The answer is quite simple: sell by dates.
The labels on food can be incredibly misleading. In almost all cases the "sell by" date only indicates the quality and not the safety of the food. Just because a food has reached its sell by date doesn't mean it is inedible, it just means it may not taste as well as it did a few days ago. While millions are starving for food, taste cannot be huge concern. These foods that are being thrown out can stilled be served. Don't judge a product by its label.
I find it funny that today, we as a nation are incredibly frugal and money conscious, yet in food waste alone, we are throwing away approximately 165 billion dollars per year. This could be money spent on education or job growth, but instead we decide an edible food is bad and send it to a landfill. People tend to go off the deep end when buying food. They buy more than needed, so when the excess isn't eaten, it gets pitched. As a culture, we need to learn moderation. This alone will reduce money wasted on excess food.
All is not lost though. There are some great new technological developments that are paving the way to food preservation. There are food tattoos being developed. These tattoos are edible patches that detect bacteria levels which can be traced through your Smartphone to tell you if the food is still good. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing ethylene sensors to install into supermarkets that sense when produce is beginning to decay. And finally there is an effort known as Zero Percent. This group helps restaurants and
supermarkets find deals on food; sends alerts to local food banks to inform them; and helps donate. If food loses are cut by only fifteen percent more than 25 million families could be fed.
In 2012 so far, we have wasted over 76 billion pounds of food. This number grows an astonishing amount each second, but it is not only food that's being wasted. Let's follow the chain backwards. Ten percent of the total U.S. energy budget is spent getting food to the table. Fifty percent of U.S. land is used to produce food along with eighty percent of our fresh water supply. How much of that food is eaten? Only sixty percent. Forty percent of food and the resources used to produce that food are lost.
By wasting food, we are not only hurting ourselves but also those without food, our economy, and even our environment. By sending food waste to landfills, more greenhouse gases that cause global warming are being released. We can't all be Ned, the Pie-Maker, and bring food back to life, but we can still do our part by urging our local markets to donate their excess foods to local charities, by being more frugal in buying foods, and doing our best to prevent food from being wasted. Just think about it, it's our own loss. Be brave and save.
Check out these awesome sources about food waste!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/postlive/in-united-states-theres-a-lot-of-food-being-wasted/2012/06/14/gJQAmk9JoV_video.html
Great Video with some good info about the food waste problem
http://www.nrdc.org/food/wasted-food.asp
Article talking about the environmental impacts of food waste in the US
http://earth911.com/news/2011/10/13/help-your-supermarket-cut-food-waste/
Awesome article about food waste in supermarkets
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/food-waste-americans-throw-away-food-study_n_1819340.html
The economic impacts of food waste in the US
http://endhunger.org/food_waste.htm
A site tracking the amount of food wasted in the world