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Effects of rapid population growth on the environment
The environmental impacts of food waste
The environmental impacts of food waste
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He got the sauce, no ketchup, just sauce. There're large amounts of food products just like ketchup that are wasted every day. With the amount of food produced, there are still many unfortunate people that starve when they could be fed with perfectly good food that some people throw away. In fact, food waste has become much more of a problem with large, growing populations and economies of different countries. About 9 billion people could be fed with the food that was wasted these past three years (Source B). In addition, more than 1 trillion dollars worth of food is wasted annually, which equates to 1.3 billion tons of food (Source C). People should be aware of this worldwide problem and take action to help reduce the amount of edible food being thrown out.When food gets thrown …show more content…
This amount of carbon dioxide could be detrimental to our society in that temperatures would rise, and cause harm to animal habitats. Because of the CO2 gas produced, it's negative effects are equivalent to setting fire to a rainforest by the amount of air pollution that is given off. Fortunately, reducing excess food waste would cause a great relief to Earth’s atmosphere and keep the air clean for plant and animal life. People are cutting down forests at a fast rate to produce more food for people (Source A). Trees are crucial to our oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange cycle. Without them, humans and all living species would become extinct without the presence of oxygen. This results in the decline of the Earth's environmental health and cause it to be uninhabitable, leaving a barren wasteland. It’s especially difficult on the environment with the high rate of population growth worldwide. On the other hand, by reducing food waste, we feed more people throughout the world and also save living species that are crucial for survival. Perfectly edible food gets wasted AND people lose hard earned money. Food is like money and instead of wasting it, it should be used efficiently and
The majority of people waste food on a daily basis. In fact, in the U.S. alone there is an estimate that over half of the food produced goes uneaten; meanwhile there are people who are in need of food, and it ultimately goes to waste (Dockterman). For example, in his essay, “On Dumpster Diving,” author Lars Eighner writes about his experiences of dumpster diving with his pet dog, during his years of homelessness. According to Eighner, much of the food and materials he came across in the dumpsters were in usable shape, and many items were new. Clearly there needs to be a change in American food waste, in current and, hopefully not so much in, future generations. In order to bring about change in this misuse of food, Americans need to be conscious
Roberts believes that “food is a solution, a cause for joy and positive energy” (Roberts, page 18). Most of the time, it is more costly to waste the food than to use the food as a tool, which can bring new opportunities. As the example he provides in the book, Will Allen, a gardener from the US, uses spent grain as an opportunity to make compost for sale and to heat his own greenhouses using the heat generated from the composting process (Roberts, page 21). This way, he has also helped find an effective way to dispose of used food rather than treating it as trash which is actually not cheap to manage. Hence, Roberts concludes that there are so many hidden resources in the world, which can be used to work with food to create opportunities and to benefit the society, economy and environment while saving money (Roberts, page
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “The average American trashes 10 times as much food as a consumer in South east Asia” (Hsu). That is about equivalent to eating 10 meals to a consumer in South East Asia’s one meal. We throw away our left over food just because we are done ea... ... middle of paper ... ... ff every month you have to pay interest, which is a waste of money because you paying extra for that money you spent.
According to Roni Neff, Marie Spiker, and Patricia Truant, up to 40% of all food produced in America is thrown away (Neff, Spiker, & Truant, 2015, p.2). This wasted food is worth hundreds of billions of dollars that is lost each year in the United States alone, and creates many threats to our country. Food waste is an important and widespread issue in the United States because most of the food thrown away is perfectly fine, it could be used to feed the hungry, and the waste hurts the environment.
American Wasteland by Jonathan Bloom is a great book where he has been researching about food waste and providing us with facts about this big issue. Bloom’s tone is very optimistic, he knows that is not too late to change our minds while giving us information on who’s to blame for this waste, How have we come to produce so much excess food, what are the solutions to stop wasting nearly 50% of available food. There is many great points found in this book such as food insecurity, redistribution and cultural shift.
“Why is Processed Food So Bad for You?” by Michael Hobbes is an informative article discussing the negative aspects of processed foods. In the article, the author talks about his famous homemade marinara sauce. He goes on to talk about how his sauce could never make it in the processed food world because of the standardization, preservatives, thickeners, and emulsifiers. All processed foods have to be standardized so that every jar, box, and package taste exactly the same. Preservatives are added so that the foods can last on the shelves and not go bad by the time the consumer reaches them. Finally, thickeners and emulsifiers are added to give the product the right consistency. By the time all of these things are added, Hobbes’ sauce will taste nothing like it did originally. Processed foods are very unhealthy and are made this way to keep up with competitors.
Thus, in order to end hunger, I propose that we collect the morsels using a structured and sufficient process and create a nutritious concoction that we can supply to famished people around the world. I propose that an organization should be created that will have the responsibility to carry out the following plan. The first part of the plan is to install food recycling bins in every home, restaurant, and grocery store in the United States. People will be required
Al Gore once said, “CO2 is the exhaling breath of our civilization,” this quote is completely accurate human civilization resolves around the production, consumption, use of entities that contain CO2. Due to our extreme use of CO2 based products we are causing a rapid spike in the CO2 levels in the atmosphere, the Mauna Loa CO2 records indicate CO2 levels has risen from 315ppm in 1960 to 403ppm in 2016 and it is still rising (noaa). This drastic increase of this toxic gas is that it is damaging the world, as we know it. The most talked about consequence of this is climate change, but the other “equally evil twin” is ocean acidification. This effect of this excessive amount of CO2 being released into our atmosphere is the decrease of pH levels of the oceans due to the increase uptake of CO2. The lowering pH level is due to the combination of CO2 and H2O combining and form carbonic acid, which is an acid. This acidification of the oceans is already wreaking havoc on the oceanic ecosystems and the effects will be more devastating in the
Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, we have been using fossil fuels to power our lives, and factories. Little did we know that our miracle energy producer was destroying our planet. The burning of fossil fuels produces a byproduct called carbon dioxide. This natural occurring gas does not harm the planet in any way when released in small quantities, but at the rate we have released it, there is nowhere for it to go so it becomes trapped in the atmosphere. When the gas becomes trapped in the atmosphere, it creates a “Green House” effect. This effect causes the surface temperature to rise, which has adverse effects on the planet. A number of bills to regulate carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere have been proposed and even accepted,
Or if we don't do massive deforestation then CO2 wouldn't be a problem. We need to start to give some regard to our ecosystem by using less energy and start doing reforestation. Also, stopping coal and oil production without changing human behavior won't solve any problem, in truth it will lead us to a bigger problem, energy crisis. Some environmentalist advocate complete alteration into green energy to provide world energy, but this is impossible, well at least not in the near future. Even Dan Clark agree with this.
The first step in achieving food security is to maximise the use of food already being produced and to minimise its waste. The FAO (2013) estimates that 1.3 billion tonnes
...veryday foods require a lot of energy and release a lot of greenhouse gases to produce. This is the reason we should stop wasting the foods, consume less meat, and eat more locally grown food.
Humans and animals breathe out Carbon Dioxide, often referred to as the greenhouse gas, as a waste product. Plants take in this CO2 and use it to make food. This is called photosynthesis. During this process oxygen is released which is then breathed in by humans and animals. This procedure is repeated over and over and a natural balance is obtained. However this natural balance is disrupted by human activity. People of the world are putting more than 5.5 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. 75% of this is caused from the burning of fossil fuels. These fuels are burnt all the time to run factories, power plants and vehicles. The main sources of CO2 emissions are electric utilities, residential buildings, industry and transportation. The other 25% is induced by the destruction of the world's forests. The reason for this is that there are less trees and plants to take in the CO2 but there is just as many, if not more, humans and animals to breathe it out.
Food waste is defined by food that is lost, wasted, or discarded and is caused through a few different processes. Food is wasted through many different ways at farms, grocery stores, and in homes. Over 40% of the food in the United States, specifically, goes to waste and 97% percent of this waste goes straight to landfills. The main issue with food waste is that the majority of food is being wasted unnecessarily. In stores, food is often thrown out because it does not meet specific standards that dictate what may be desirable to consumers. This issue of food picking is important as foods are not always being thrown away because they have gone bad, but because they have appearances that do not seem attractive. If we hope to lessen the environmental impact we have as a result of the mass
According to Price et al. (1985), estimated values of the total global food loss and waste to around one third of the edible parts of food produced for human consumption, amounting to about 1.3 billion tonnes (1.28×109 long tons; 1.43×109 short tons) per year . In developing countries, like Ethiopia it is estimated that 400-500 calories per day per person are gainful