Food for thought (literally)!

[Anarchist]

Found this a bit unsettling and a sign of the times we live in.

The U.S. produces about 591 billion pounds of food each year, and up to half of it goes to waste, costing farmers, consumers and businesses hundreds of billions of dollars.

Food scraps are the second-largest component of the national waste stream, making up 19% of what we put into landfills. (Americans compost only about 2.5% of the food that they discard.) Food in landfill creates methane, a source of greenhouse gas. In addition, 2% of all U.S. energy consumption goes into producing food that is ultimately thrown out. Some cities and countries have taken action. Seattle and San Francisco made household composting mandatory in 2009, and last summer, Norway banned food and biodegradable waste from its landfills.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 73152.html

[Barwaaqoiyobashbash]

Damnnnnnn.

[SelfD]

I saw on Opera once ppl that go to grocery store dumpsters and take the thrown out vegetables that are still in good condition.
They're called freegans

[ElfRuler]

Did you know that most of that food is wasted simply because the packaging or can is dented or because they will "expire" tomorrow. Aside from what the typical American wastes, the supermarkets throw away most of their food as well. Instead of freely giving it to the destitute poor they would rather dump it. The only reason why they waste perfectly good food is because of the notion of "there is no free lunch". Once they start donating newly expired food, no one will bother to purchase food and their profits will decrease.

[VeiledGarbasar]

Waa salaaman tihin tutti,

It is well-known that we have ENOUGH FOOD to feed the World and ENOUGH MONEY to clothe everyone, house, educate and generally have the means to live as a human being. Instead, certain countries, and in specifically a small percentage horde the money and amass most of the food. The driving force is usually selfishness and a culture of individualism, that sees a person die from millions that is donated to dogs.

Anyways, I thought this was going to be about the type of 'food' we should consume to help our 'brain' and thoughts. I'm kind of disappointed.

K, you should search for a program we have in the UK called, 'The Food Hospital.' It is basically about changing people through food. Whether they have health issues, skin issues or psychological ones, they look at how they can change it through food. A kid with attention deficient disorder was featured, and just by cutting his sweets, fast-food and loads of other sugary stuff he consumes, he improved in his behaviour, school and his training to become a footballer.

[Cherine]

I saw on Opera once ppl that go to grocery store dumpsters and take the thrown out vegetables that are still in good condition.
They're called freegans

This really makes me not want to shop from these supermarket chains. They throw perfectly within date food away and even tell their employees they're not to take it. Disgusting people!

[Cherine]

Did you know that most of that food is wasted simply because the packaging or can is dented or because they will "expire" tomorrow. Aside from what the typical American wastes, the supermarkets throw away most of their food as well. Instead of freely giving it to the destitute poor they would rather dump it. The only reason why they waste perfectly good food is because of the notion of "there is no free lunch". Once they start donating newly expired food, no one will bother to purchase food and their profits will decrease.

Exactly. These people are criminals.

[Anarchist]

Abundance in food commodities, government subsidies for the agriculture industry, public health policies regarding food safety, lack of cultural frugality are all to blame for this.

It's easier to dump the scraps than deal with the resources/time involved in their preservation & handing out to the needy.

It's not like there are no hungry people in this country, nobody gives a shit about feeding them because of stigmas & a culture of indifference to social issues.

[Alphanumeric]

Legal liabilities with expired/poor quality food. Had I been a store owner, I'd dump it as well. Unfortunately this is the reality most food businesses deal with. Not to mention people simply waiting out back for bags of scrap rather than purchasing it, which may actually be a prevalent issue despite whatever your reaction is.

Yeah, there's enough food for everyone, but people gotta eat.

And let's not mention health concerns.

[zulaika]

something to think about next time you throw food away....this is a collective problem.

[Alphanumeric]

Nonsense. I wonder how many of you would eat a moldy sandwich?

[Tuushi]

Legal liabilities with expired/poor quality food. Had I been a store owner, I'd dump it as well. Unfortunately this is the reality most food businesses deal with. Not to mention people simply waiting out back for bags of scrap rather than purchasing it, which may actually be a prevalent issue despite whatever your reaction is.

This^

Once a homeless man gets a food poisoning,he would be more than ready to sue that business owner who fed him.

[ElfRuler]

We wasted around 40% of all edible food.

[Tuushi]

We wasted around 40% of all edible food.

Usually,this is not the typical household doing this.

I dont remember the exact show but i was watching a doc on farms/farmers and how their produce makes to our supermarkets.Any imperfect product;be it a little dent,odd shaped etc was thrown away immediately and that was one location.

[The`Republic]

Anarchist, after watching the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly dead and some more research I am actually on my way to buy a juicer. I'm doing a juice fast for 10 days and my mom will be doing for 30 days. Want to see what this does for my acid reflux and my mom's cholesterol