Consumers & Businesses Waste 40% of the Food Produced in the US
“Getting food from the farm to our fork eats up:
--10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget
--50 percent of U.S. Land
--80 percent of all freshwater consumed in the United States.
Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten.
This not only means that Americans are throwing out the equivalent of $165 billion each year, but also that the uneaten food ends up rotting in landfills as the single largest component of U.S. municipal solid waste where it accounts for a l6% of U.S. methane emissions.
Reducing food losses by just 15 percent would be enough food to feed more than 25 million Americans every year at a time when one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables.”
Source:
https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf
food from my backyard garden
YES!!! BE the change!!!!
Keep on growing!
This waste is great for many things, like soil compost, feeding animals, for example :) Hello steemer that road this comment :) have a good life
Yes though then it would not be waste. It would be a resource being used. As we live. We live a life with no waste because we are using what would be "waste" to most as a resource and turing it into something valuable.
When something gets put in a dumpster or landfill and mass amounts of petroleum are used to simply add to a toxic wasteland......That is pure waste.
This is one of the reasons I founded The Garden of Eden and one of the facets of sustainability we are most successful with!
The truth is that life in almost all western countries needs MAJOR overhaul in all aspects but without a doubt in sustainability. There are SO many solutions to cut out almost all this waste and the carbon footprint that is happening yet we need more education.
We make compost out of waste, feed animals out of waste and thus create MORE food none of which we have to buy and none of which uses any resources. In truth we are actually SAVING wasted/forsaken resources and turning NOTHING into SOMETHING of great value.
This is actually very easy and could very easily be done in every neighborhood/town/city on any small or large scale.
It just has to be a priority!
May it be so~*~
Thank you for making it a priority, Quinn! A better way really is possible; your example is genuinely inspiring!
This is one of the many reasons why I respect you so much Quinn... Many people can see it, but few people do anything about it.
And... It is fucking hard - overwhelming and despair-inducing. I know because I've lived it for most of my life... People living so recklessly and without any kind of conscious thought - anything at all about what they are doing, what systems they are supporting, and how connected everything is... That living in such waste is disrespectful - to the self, to one's environment, and to one's source (of life - however one chooses to define it).
I'm glad you are alive Brother. Thank you for being the example I once thought was impossible.
Yes and its so easy to just do what everyone else does, though the standards are LOW they are acceptable and even easier because everyone else is doing it.
Its a shame because humanities standards are SOOOOO low yet it just seems normal. The atrocities that humans do on a DAILY basis, an eye is not even batted. Just life as usual.
It's such a sad thing that there's plenty of food to feed the world but people starve because of wasted food and lack of distribution.
It's ridiculous! We exist to prove there's more than enough of everything. Rather than complain about problems, we live solutions: https://steemit.com/homelessness/@gardenofeden/sustainable-community-illegally-feeds-the-homeless
@goose Its the corrupt system of countries that causes starvation, take Africa as an example, one of the richest countries in mineral deposits but half the country is starving.
@merlinscat exactly!
This is a very important factor to comprehend because it actually influences every fact of our life not just the food problem.
The powers that be purposefully create scenarios of lack so as to keep people in fear that if it were not for "the government" then we would be like that too.
The same thing applies to wars. The global elite have been funding wars and feuds all over the world to keep people terrified that if they don't have government they will be in war and chaos as well.
Its all part of the game, propaganda is a major player in the game of the world for power and control.
I published an article titled "The Truth About Money" where I go into the history of money and how it really works in the world game. Its a very beneficial read.
Knowledge is power~*~
https://steemit.com/money/@quinneaker/the-truth-about-money-what-you-need-to-know-to-free-your-self-from-perpetual-debt
I have heard that there is a lot of food waste. I was always told to finish my meals and if I couldn't finish what was put before me it was saved for later. Really, the thing that wastes food the most is creating meat. If the grain feed to animals was given to humans no one would go hungry. Not to mention the monstrous slaughter and ecological damage too.
This fact specifically addresses processed food, rather than how many resources are devoted to the meat industry. Almost every single grocery store throws out hundreds of pounds of meat, dairy, and other perfectly edible food every single day. We raise chickens for eggs & meat, but they are fed super sustainable sources of food, either bugs or weeds from our land or trash resources like forsaken produce.
Yes its true, wasting food is evil. But it is just as wrong to murder life for food - in fact you would incur more negativity if you had meat to eat and through it away, as it is a greater disrespect. Its also very unhealthy and unnatural for humans to eat meat and dairy. At least its a lesser form of evil you participate in compared to most people who eat meant and dairy.
Everything is relative. At the Garden of Eden, we refrain from judgment and live according to our values. We honor life and have great reverence for the value our animals have in our ecosystem. We have some vegetarians here, but the majority of us eat meat. We're super healthy, and it's perfectly natural for us--our bodies have all the enzymes they need to process meat. That doesn't mean we choose to consume meat at every meal, or even every day, but we're blessed by the animal that nourishes our bodies.
Judgement is needed to discriminate between right and wrong actions. If one has respect for life one does not murder animals to eat them. Simple. Also meat is not digested properly and purifies inside the body causing imbalances as one is not meant to eat meat. If you don't eat flesh often, why not let the animals live. Its disgusting to kill a living being simple to eat it and then excrete it out a few days later. One is not blessed by the murder of an animal and it does not nourish you. You are cursed by the dead animal and it creates disease to ingest it. Please see this.
The next time the kids say there's nothing to eat... consider telling them to check the landfill. ;) These truths about American waste and zombie consumerism is really sad. Is there a way to make food businesses more aware and wake up to the truth? How can we Americans be held more accountable? Solutions?
We're living a solution at the Garden of Eden, and we're demonstrating a revolution in values!
I think its insane that this is happening and more insane that "We the People" continue to be so wasteful yet complain that there is not enough. I'm glad you are doing something about it.
Hell yeah! The Garden of Eden is speaking up where others pretend they don't see anything and it's all okay. We're here setting the example of a higher standard. Woo hoo!
Exactly!
We hope that people wake up to the realities of the current system and choose something different--a better way is totally possible!
Just think of all the people going to work at a job 5 days a week (who likely wouldn't be doing that job if they weren't getting paid to do it), working upwards of 40-60 hours a week, have only two weeks out of their entire year to do what they want--taking a vacation from their life they return to after their short relaxation time is through--they wake up to alarm clocks everyday, sit in traffic, can't wait for Friday, hate Monday,, spend hours getting ready and shopping for clothes to be appropriate, are stressed out, overweight, on medications, just waiting to get home for a beer in front of the television. They have little time for growing food or even cooking for that matter. All of that for the necessities of food and shelter. Hmmmmm...interesting they never teach children in school how to provide those two things for themselves, only how to earn money so they can pay and not have to be engaged in the process. Sounds like a lot of life energy to get what is already readily available abundantly but being wasted. Thank you @quinneaker for helping the world see how ridiculously we spend our energy and for creating the example of how simple it can be. Grateful for the abundance we harvest at the Garden of Eden from all that waste. And oh, that's an incredible percentage--I suppose I'm not really surprised!
There are people selling entire hours of their precious, limited life in order to buy a block of cheese!
There's already more than enough of everything. Not everyone has to grow the food; we can agree that the people who enjoy that can do so, and the others who value it can make some kind of fair trade or contribution to partake in the abundance. We can find a way to make a healthier and more sustainable world for ALL!
Over 50% of fruits and vegetables wasted... epic fail.
#losing