Food is an essential part of a person’s day, but for some Americans, it is an everyday struggle to feed themselves and their families. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 1 in 6 people face hunger. Most of these people are homeless and have limited access to food despite the large amounts of food available in restaurants and supermarkets. In an article by Feeding America, they stated that “An estimated 25 – 40% of food grown, processed and transported in the US will never be consumed.” This means that all these products from large supermarkets are mass produced only to end up in the trash. Much of this food is thrown out because it has reached its expiry date, thus it is important for the government to create a policy which mandates hypermarkets to donate food that is past its expiry date in order to feed the homeless. Food waste comes from expired food being disposed of, but food doesn’t instantly become spoiled as the day indicated on its packaging comes. Food that has expired does not necessarily make it unsafe to eat. Dana Gunders, Senior scientist in the Food and Agriculture Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, explains that food expiration dates are displayed in various ways. One manufacturer might indicate a “best by” date, while another might display a “sell by” date instead. This results in unreliable sources to determine whether a product is still safe to consume or not. She also says “While people often worry about getting
The PC will randomly select 25 participants, aged 65 years and older, who are patients in a primary care setting, who have at least one chronic disease, are Haitian Creole speaking only, and who take more than five medications daily. Those patients will meet monthly and will bring their pill bottles for medication review. Two Haitian Creole speaking pharmacists will be recruited to participate in the program. They will gain access to the participants' electronic health records (EHR) for the duration of the program. During each visit, the pharmacists will inquire about participants' medication use including over the counter medications, reason for taking the medications, the duration of the treatment, the use of different providers, and participant's
There is enough food waste in America to fill up 730 football stadiums. Yet, ironically there were almost 50 million people who live in households that are food-insecure in 2013. Thus, it is critically important to help reduce (or at the very least reevaluate) the amount of food that is wasted so it can be used to help those who can’t always afford it, or, help to reduce the impact of methane released by landfills, or, help to use less resources gone into making the produce.
This paper will examine the problem of food waste in the United States. Firstly, this paper will describe what food waste is, and why food waste in the American society is an immense issue that needs to be addressed. In addition, it will address the consequences of food waste and the possible problems that this issue may bring in the future. Secondly, the paper will discuss three policy solutions that would help solve the problem of food waste in the United States: provide an enhanced tax deduction for corporations that choose to donate their food to the food banks, performing an extensive study that covers every single aspect of food waste in the current food system, and require every citizen to compost their food waste. Afterwards, it will analyze the pros and cons, and the hypothetical strengths and vulnerabilities of each policy solution. Lastly, this paper will discuss personal opinions on the issue of food waste.
One of the ways food is unnecessarily wasted is through the USDA’s grading of produce based on cosmetic value. Produce with cosmetic imperfections are valued at a lesser price and thus often farmers will not even make the effort to sell produce that has nothing wrong with it other than the fact that it is “ugly” (Glickman, 2015). Furthermore, businesses are required to throw out food that has passed its expiration date. However, expiration dates tend to be quite random and often have little truth to them (Glickman, 2015). They are simply to be used as estimates but end up adding to the amount of food waste. And all the food waste lands in landfills that cause the release of methane gas into the earth’s atmosphere. In fact, food waste which is categorized as organic waste is the primary source of methane gas (Baussan et. Al,
The definition of ambition describes a human beings earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction. In William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Macbeth is more ambitious than anyone else in the play due to his utmost drive to get to the throne, the pressure trying to prove Lady Macbeth to become the man that she desires, and the desire of Macbeth to kill an entire line of the Macduff family. The first indication of Macbeth being more ambitious than all of the other characters is, his intense drive to become the King of Scotland.
A European or North American consumer wastes almost 100 kilograms of food annually, which is more than his or her weight. Reducing the amount of food that is produced in the United States has been a great challenge for decades for the American Society. One of the great challenges that is preventing the solution to this issue is that the major part of the society is not recognizing the effect of this issue. Similarly, in his article “Can We End America’s Massive Food Waste Problem?”, the author Mr. Karim Chrobog discusses how aware are the American people on matter of food waste and the major reasons why the wastage of food is growing fast in the United States. Chrobog explains that different advertisements have changed how consumers choose their food making them to be picky on how they get their food products. Furthermore, he presents some statics that explains the food wasted in the United States is much larger than any other country in the world. In addition, he claims that expire date labels and the food not meeting the consumer standards in the stores are the major causes of the food waste that is happening today. He demonstrates that technology can be used a means of solution to combat the issue of food waste by presenting an app that has helped in the reduction of food waste by cooperating restaurants and stores with charity organizations feeding hungry people the food that was going to be wasted. Consequently, he stated that people
In the novella Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, fear plays a significant role amongst the animals. Fear is seen when the pigs utilise the dangers of man. It is also seen through the violent nature of the dogs, which help the pigs maintain control of the farm. In addition, Napoleon uses his power to cause the animals to fear questioning him and to convince them to follow his rules. These mechanisms help make fear more powerful within Animal Farm.
It is often argued that food waste in the U.S is inevitable and businesses would not change their habits and that it is human nature to throw away food that seems unfresh. However, they fail to understand that a person’s sense to throw away food is heavily influenced by the expiration date and, and the use by date, in which the deregulation of these labels confuses businesses and consumers of when food should be thrown away. Businesses also throw away food based on standards on produce appearance, and how it appealing the produce looks to customer. In 2016, The Food Date Labeling Act was proposed to Congress but has not became a law yet. The bill establishes “ a uniform national system for date labeling that clearly distinguishes between
Work time money and energy is being sacrificed for no reward and most of the time is a huge loss to the producer. Food portion sizes in American restaurants have mostly been getting larger since the 1970s. Restaurants use larger portion. Larger portions make customers more willing to buy and in turn they cannot finish the whole meal. This trend toward larger sizes causes more food waste when customers are unable to finish a meal and also contributes to obesity and over eating of food. Americans also tend to leave a lot of food behind in restaurants according to the world resource institute we do not finish our food about 17 percent of the time while 55 percent of the time our leftover are not taken home. In the United States three commonly seen terms are “sell-by,” “best if used by,” and “use-by” none of which are required by the federal government. These dates all refer to food quality or the flavor of the food instead of food safety, a measure of whether or not the food could potentially cause illness when eaten. However, consumers often view all of these dates as being a measure of food safety.104 So while food that has passed its “sell-by” date might be less desirable than newly-purchased food, it is often still entirely safe to eat. This misperception may lead consumers to throwaway edible food they believe is no longer safe to eat. All this waste and there are thousands of people in America alone who go hungry every
Food is simply too good to waste. And while the loss of some food is inevitable, the amount of food Americans waste everyday has reached an all time high, and still continues to grow. The process by which food is produced uses 10% of the national energy budget, 50% of U.S. land, and 80% of the freshwater in the United States. (Gunders, 2012). Yet, 40% or 133 billion pounds of the food grown in this country goes to waste every year (Buzby, 2014). Reducing food losses by just 15% would be enough to feed more than 25 million Americans every year, when one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables (Gunders, 2012). Schools are one of the largest contributors to plate waste. A study by Richard Cohen reveals that plate waste accounts
There is no clear description regarding food waste in a universal matter either historically or presently, making it perplexing in definition and comparison. What is clear is that food waste continues to grow at a rapid pace with the expansion of a world population experiencing societal and agricultural developments in an era where land and other resources are becoming more limited. The increase in waste and category of foods which people throw away has transformed with time through the advancement and evolving of varying cultures. The French labeled “Garbage” specifically as food waste and later broadened the term in applying to refuse in general.
In America, we are constantly surrounded by abundance. Food is a prevalent waste item in the United States. Most people do not think about the resources it took to produce, transport, and prepare the food they throw away. Our food waste is not actually just trash; it is the key to human survival. Ordinary consumers can change the future with one small action: to stop wasting food. Actions at the individual level can decrease food waste and feed those in need. Twenty five percent of purchased food is thrown away. (TED) Often this is because food has spoiled, but it can be for other reasons such as oversupply, misread labels, or individual consumer shopping and eating habits. http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3347e/i3347e.pdf
Breakfast has long been perpetuated to be the most important meal of the day. It provides the necessary energy that one needs to perform during the day. Skipping breakfast can lead to exhaustion, extreme hunger, and lack of focus. The importance of breakfast cannot be overlooked, but the nutritional value of one’s morning meal is equally important.
Food plays an important role in our daily life. Without food, we cannot survive. Food gives us all the required nutrients that our body needs in order to perform activities in our daily life. People usually find it difficult when choosing the right and effective diet for themselves. Its easy to get overwhelmed with all the dieting advice you get. Do you have to try out every type of diets without obtaining any result? Some people are unaware about how to have a proper diet and with those misleading advice, they may have to stop consuming the food they love, cutting down some portions and calories. Some people do survive this, nevertheless majority of people find it restrictive. In order to have a proper diet, the below information will give an idea about how nutrients plays a significant role in a proper diet. What helps the people to get a proper diet are the three types of diets involved, which are divided into three categories; balanced diet, diabetic diet and fitness diet.
There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent