When you eat dinner at Sparky’s Place, how many plates of food do you grab? How much food on the plates do you throw out? Each American throws out an average of a pound of food a day. That may not seem like a lot, but multiply that by about 300 million people, and then by 365 days a year. That equals over 100 billion pounds of food wasted each year. This excess of food waste drains natural resources, destroys the environment, and decomposes while 50 million Americans starve.
Each cookie you grab requires energy from natural resources in order to produce, process and package, and transport all of the supplies to make it. This process of food production and transport utilizes between 8 to 16 % of America ’s total energy consumption. Food waste however is accountable for 25% of the freshwater consumption and 4% of oil consumption. That is a lot of resources being thrown away at a time when we complain of depleting resources. Instead of drilling for oil in foreign countries we should be tapping into our landfills.
Nonetheless, this surplus of food being thrown into landfills does not do our environment much good. Besides the release of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels used to produce an overabundance of food, methane is released into the atmosphere as the food decomposes in the landfills. Methane is a green house gas that is over 20 % more polluting than carbon dioxide and its primary source is landfills.
So besides the needless destruction of our environment, 50 million American’s do not have enough access to food on a daily basis. It makes absolutely no sense that we throw out 1/5th of our food, while one out of every six people in this country goes hungry. Why is so much edible food being thrown away, while our own neighbor’s stomachs are aching?
The reason for this incredible amount of waste is our culture’s need to live in excess. Americans tend to buy more than enough food for themselves so that they have a sense of security and complacency, and thus producers produce more and more to meet the demands of the markets. This overproduction does nothing but destroy our environment and taunt the impoverished.
What can we do about this issue? Individuals can purchase only what is necessary, plan meals according to their needs, save leftovers for subsequent meals, and give excess non-perishable food to shelter so that the producers do not need to make as much. Producers, retailers, restaurants and consumers can donate excess food and resources to those in need. Non-donatable food can also be recycled in a backyard compost pile. Taking these steps to reduce waste would save energy resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help the impoverished and hungry within our own country. In other words, think before you grab that extra plate of food at Sparky’s
I agree with the post a hundred percent,things like grabbing an extra plate from Sparky's, we take that for granted here, we never however think about those people that go hungry without a good meal of the day. We should be more caring and giving, in order to help out our own societies.
ReplyDeleteSo, this article brought a new perspective to social injustice in my eyes. I never would have considered excess consumption of food a social injustice until now. Considering the statistics that the average human wastes about one pound of food a day is quite a lot, especially if you add the numbers for all humans. I agree and believe that people should tend to be more aware of what they grab while going to breakfast, lunch, or dinner. People can learn to reduce the numbers of food wasted, and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced at landfills. The food that people are not able to finish, should go to local organizations that help those that are hungry.
ReplyDeleteThough I agree that Americans have a major problem with food waste, I feel that some of this is an inevitable part of life. People throw away food when it's old, rotten or just unappealing; no one wants to eat bad food. As for unused food in the Den, it would be great if soup kitchens could take the untouched food at the end of the night, but they have to follow strict food laws concerning perishable, already cooked food. I also feel that though this is a significant injustice, much is being done to prevent the things discussed in this blog. For instance, methane-run automobiles are being designed by car companies and with the current shape of the economy, many are only buying the amount of food that they need. Hopefully, this problem will work itself out through both breaks in technology and people's knowledge on the topic.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Americans waste a lot. Growing up whenever I ate dinner at my grandparents house my grandmother would always shake her head at us if we didn't eat everything that was on our plates. She would then tell us that when she was growing up she would not be able to leave the table without cleaning her plate. My grandparents grew up during the Depression so they spent any little money on food and to waste that is was wrong.
ReplyDeleteI think now that even with the recession that people should not spend money on excess but I think people are scared. They figure that who knows when they will have enough money again so when they have the money they splurge on food or excess that way they have it.
People should have a food budget and plan all their meals for the week that way they know exactly what to get without wasting anything. Also people really only give food to food pantries during the holidays maybe we should all give during the nonholidays of the year so everyone will get a chance to eat.
This article offers a new perspective on the issue of the amount of food being wasted every day. Although it can seem like a small amount of wasted food for each individual person a day, this number grows tremendously when it is multiplied by the number of people there are and the number of days in the year. Wasting food not only wastes that food, but also the resources that went into making it, which means even more is being wasted than meets the eye. Our environment is being destroyed while people still wait starving. Saving food, planning meals ahead, and donating are all possible and helpful options the average person can do to conserve.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with this article. I think we take for granted how lucky we are to be able to eat each day and not have to worry about if we will have another meal. It is obvious that we waste a great amount of food without even realizing it. In order to try and fix this problem, individuals need to start taking steps to be more aware of how much food we buy and how much of it we are wasting. It will start to make a difference if everyone puts forth an effort. I agree that donating to shelters is also a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this article, because I don't like wasting food. After having leftovers at home and throwing them out, I always feel guilty after words. There are hungry people in the world who can't afford a decent meal. I feel like I should give all the leftovers I don't want to a food pantry. Wasting leftovers is also a waste of money and people don't realize that. No wonder why they can't afford expensive things. If you have leftovers, please do not waste.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely often take it for granted that we have plenty of food at the tip of our fingers. It is important for people to open their eyes and see how lucky we are to have something as simple as food, and we should reach out to help those who don't have food. Sometimes it just seems hard to understand how we can directly help those in need. In a perfect world, leftover food would be given to those who can not afford it, so no one would starve. However, getting food to those who don't have it is sometimes more difficult than it sounds. It costs more transportation money and gasoline. It is also interesting to think about how money-hungry our country is. If perfectly unspoiled leftover food was given to those who don't buy their own food, the companies and places like Sparkys who produce food would not make money because people would stop paying for it if they knew that they could get the leftovers for free. Its sad that our country is driven by money and it would be nice if no one were starving.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, I was very shocked for the amount of food that we all waste every year. I realize that people throw their food away because they get excessive food than they want to eat, and they try new food that they have never tasted and end up dislike the food. The only way to get rid of the food is throwing the food away. I agree with this article that we all should save leftovers it helps strengthen our family finance and allow us to get other necessity supply. I usually save leftovers, and sometimes I add ingredients to my leftovers and cook a different kind of meal for the next day. Not everyone in the world has enough food. There are millions of people in different countries who are suffering starvation. Donate food to others who are in needed is a very thoughtful consideration. It creates sympathies between people in the society. Solutions always come from people working together and help each other.
ReplyDeleteYes, there is alot of food being wasted every year when there are alot of people starving in our communities. It will definately be better for those people who do not know how to manage their food supply plans, to carefully handle the left-overs so that they could be donated to those that need it.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of food that is wasted in our country is both amazing and unfortunate. I work at a local Dunkins and the amount of food that is thrown away is unbelievable. Dozens of donuts, muffins, bagels and sandwhiches are simply tossed in the trash. People in thrid world countries would be more than grateful for that food. For that matter, starving people in the U.S., wold be more than grateful for that food. The idea of it disturbed me so much that I asked my manager why the leftovers were not donated. She said that in the past the leftovers were donated to a shelter. However, there was a complaint that the food was stale because it was a day old. The shelter also requested that Dunkins stop sending the food. Beggars can't be choosers. Something nice was being done for those less fortunate and it went unappreciated.
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