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When we think about environmental problems, images of industrial pollution or car exhaust come to mind—not dinner. In reality, the food sector poses one of the largest threats to our planet.
Food waste occurs at all stages of the food cycle: when farmers leave unharvested crops to rot in fields because it is not profitable to harvest them; when inappropriate storage and handling causes food to spoil; when retailers turn away 'ugly' produce; and when confusing date labels cause consumers to discard food that is still safe to eat. Food waste at each of these stages contributes to 40 percent of all food produced in the U.S. going uneaten—a fact made paradoxical given that one in six people in the U.S. faces food insecurity.
Agriculture accounts for up to 80 percent of freshwater consumption in the U.S. To produce 8 ounces of strawberries, it takes about 10 gallons of water, whereas six ounces of steak requires an exorbitant 674 gallons of water!
Given that agriculture takes up 50 percent of land area in the U.S., proper water management matters greatly as droughts will continue to exacerbate water scarcity. California, often referred to as America's breadbasket, is already vulnerable to drought, and as climate change intensifies, these droughts will only last longer and happen more frequently.
When we waste food, we are also wasting the fuel required to transport it. Transporting food from farms to consumer households consumes 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget.
The impact of food waste ripples into other issues, too, including municipal solid waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Uneaten food comprises the largest category of municipal solid waste reaching U.S. landfills, and it accounts for 23 percent of U.S. methane emissions, since methane is a byproduct of its decomposition.
[...] Confusing date labels cause a large portion of food waste. In the absence of federal standards, food manufacturers and retailers decide on labels and cut-off dates based on their own market standards. Consequently, American consumers find diverse and inconsistent food date labels in grocery stores. Various items read 'sell by', 'use by', 'best by', and/or 'enjoy by', and their meanings vary from product to product.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 30 2019, @11:42AM (2 children)
The eatable part of any agricultural plant is less than the leftover herbage. If byproducts of ITS decomposition AND the farts made from the eaten part hadn't yet thrown the planet off its axis or whatever imaginary bugbear scenario, what brazen illogic is needed to try and invent a scare out of the minor fraction that remains?
Let's also not forget that in nice human-free wilderness utopia, all plant parts not eaten by a rodent, bird, or other herbivore, will rot exactly the same. Including, by the way, a somewhat largish part of the food caches made by said rodents; they tend to forget, you see, and to suddenly get eaten by someone besides.
There IS such a thing as too much propaganda. Real ecological problems that do happen for real around us, are hopelessly drowned in this incessant flood of crazy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 30 2019, @03:37PM (1 child)
The difference is that the wilderness is not sucking groundwater and damming rivers to feed itself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 30 2019, @04:19PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_dam [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreatophyte [wikipedia.org]
Why is it that the loudest voices "for ecology" are always so much clueless about all things nature?