Food Insecurity Essay

Food insecurity is defined by those who either do not have enough or are at real risk of not having enough food for their family. In May of 2009, there were approximately 38 million Americans defined as food insecure. That number grew to nearly 49 million 6 months later, and today there are over 50 million food insecure Americans (1 out of every 6). I find this astounding, because about 30 percent of all produce is thrown away before it even reaches the grocery store. Why? Because of cosmetic imperfections that are stipulated by large grocers that decide how produce should look. That is roughly 100 billion pounds of food a year or 1 pound per American per day that is being wasted because they aren’t pretty. America has begun to cater to only the perfectionist shoppers and has forgotten about those who do not have the money to purchase highly-priced produce. One of the ways we can start to solve this problem is through minimizing food waste at the beginning of the chain. Farmers typically throw away roughly 30 percent of all produce because they do not meet the guidelines for color, shape or number of blemishes. Instead, we should be following the

Childhood obesity and diabetes have become increasingly common among youth in our country. Over the last 30 years, obesity among children and adolescents in the U.S has quadrupled from 6 percent to 24 percent, and over 18,000 children are diagnosed with diabetes every year. This can largely be attributed to not having enough access to healthy nutritious foods, such as fresh produce. In most low-income communities families are restricted to the use of small convenience stores and low-quality grocers which are typically not equipped to sell these foods because they cannot afford to purchase them. Almost 90 percent of Americans do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. There are many reasons for this, but a major reason is because so many families are food