Food Labeling Is Bad

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It is Not All Bad
Going on a trip to a market to restock those empty cupboards sounds delicious, but there tends to be a little too much shopping done. Eventually, those foods end up in the back of the fridge for years where they go to waste. Everyone is guilty of overshopping and wasting food, consumers being the most wasteful, but no ever tries to do anything to stop it. And so there exist many reasons as to why Americans waste food, like overproduction or beauty standards. As a result, we end up with an overfilled landfill producing greenhouse gases. As a society we about these environmental problems, yet we do not try to fix what we caused with the many solutions that exist.
Consumers are the most wasteful. We are the ones who purchase …show more content…

Food labeling, in this case, means the “expires” or “best by” label found on the wrapper of any packaged good. At times the wording confuses the consumer and it could lead to foods that are perfectly good to be thrown away. There is a difference between “best by” and “expires on” but without the proper knowledge it is difficult to differentiate their meaning. The labeling of “best by” informs the buyer that if they want the best food quality, they should consume by the given date not that the food is bad after that specific date. For example, chips, they have a “best by” date to notify of the freshness but even after past the date they will still be edible. The label of “expires on” is the one that informs when the food will become more of a health hazard so they should be thrown out but people think that “best by” and “expires on” is the same thing which results in good food being discarded to the trash.
Overproduction is one of the top causes of food waste. Farmers overproduce to make up for any possible food loss that will occur due to pests or just bad harvesting. When they farm more than needed the excess is thrown away because it is too expensive to donate to charity or second-hand …show more content…

When all the unwanted food gets sent to the landfill over time it begins to decompose. As it decomposes it releases gases that affect the ozone layer of earth. And it does not affect it in a good way since it destroys the ozone layer. In the long run, it affects the number of UV rays that can pass through so there is a greater chance of developing skin cancer. Dana Paslowski writes in “The Environmental Impact of Food Waste” that “for the uninitiated, excess amounts of greenhouse gases such as methane, CO2 and chlorofluorocarbons absorb infrared radiation and heat up the earth’s atmosphere, causing global warming and climate change” so the gases released from food waste not only affects the ozone layer, it contributes to climate change as well. And from what is known about climate change, it is destroying ecosystems.
But solutions are possible, for example, there could be more places where one could go to learn about food waste and its effects. At the supermarket, there could be informative signs warning people of the effects of throwing away perfectly good food. At school students can be taught alternatives to throw away food such as composting. Informing people of the risks and effects of wasting food would, in a way, put some fear in them. If they hear that it affects the ozone layer and increases the risk of skin cancer, it would make them think twice about throwing away their good food.

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