Effects Of Food Waste

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Every year billions of tons of food waste is diverted into America's landfills, consuming nearly 18% of its contents (Palmer ¶9). Food waste refers to the disregard or rejection of edible food that is therefore wasted when it is left to spoil. Often times food is thrown away because it does not meet the cosmetic standards of groceries or consumers and is simply thrown away without any regard for its effect on the environment. Many times food goes to waste because consumers buy a surplus of produce, prepare more food than there is mouths to feed, or they simply toss out a product that is past its sell by date. Food has become inexpensive making it easier for consumers to disrespect food’s nutritional purpose. Food waste is not only irresponsible-- …show more content…

Researcher Eliana Dockterman reveals that the increase of food waste is due to the overproduction of produce by farmers, the rejection of blemished goods by distributors, overstocked grocery store shelves, and consumers not knowing how to properly plan meals and store food ( ¶3). In more recent studies it is recorded that nearly “1 in 7 truckloads of perishable goods delivered to supermarkets get thrown away, amounting to nearly 34 million tons of food a year” (Dockterman ¶ 8). But why has it become easy for Americans to simply toss out edible food? The answer is America's next generation has not been taught the value of food. Americans do not regard the cost of throwing away twenty cent apples because it’s one apple. But if each American throwing away one apple has a wasteful mentality, landfills will be filled with perfectly edible produce. This example of waste demonstrates, author Sharon Palmer’s theory regarding the increased amount of food waste by 50% since 1974 ( ¶2,3). However, consumers are not the only ones wasting food on their end of the spectrum. Food is over produced at all aspects of the food chain. When food is allowed to spoil in fields, markets and refrigerators, Americans are simply tossing produce into the garbage. (Palmer ¶6). But how would it make consumers feel knowing when they toss produce into the garbage they are throwing away their

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