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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: 1) by khallow on Friday August 30 2019, @12:30PM (2 children)
Only partially true. Some resources like ground water are way overconsumed, but the developed world has figured out how to preserve top soil - which would have vanished in much of the developed world, if they were doing the above.
And the ways we don't do that are ways the "system" is not at war with ecology.
In large part because the recycling of plastic is near valueless while human time remains one of the most valuable resources on the planet, including for environmental matters. Let's not war with ecology, right?
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Friday August 30 2019, @01:17PM (1 child)
I can see what you are saying. I argue however that individuals isolated doing things for the land are not the system though. You are saying people out there are doing it and they are part of some kind of system, which is right, but c'mon, they are not The System We Are Currently Living In. Which is a capitalist cultural hegemony with crypto upper layers.
Are you sure they are managing their soil in africa(and the amazon) because I read otherwise regularly:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30277514 [bbc.com]
'near valuless', only by lack of effort, creativity and minimal design effort.
human time is most valuable resource, and we have a super huge surplus of it, yet something somewhere never puts these two together and that thing is The System.
In essence then we have these huge devastating surpluses, and Something Somewhere says we can't put 2+2 together and give some people jobs recycling plastic or cleaning things up. Or design containers that have more than one use, even though I and several others have done just that. Want to start a company? I'm ready to go on this, just need investors.
But there are no investors for the ideas of poor people and ecology. This is because jeff bozos values his chances of being famous for space inventions more than the livelihood of billions of people, and because people like epstein value their creepiest desires more than spending any of their immense resources to change a system that literally lets them walk off with other peoples kids ipso facto legally. And the rest of us have only the chance to get on 'shark tank' and be mocked for being poor with our ideas.
I would put it rather, we are at war for our suvival, ecology is on our side and the people with the money and status to make a differnce are, mostly, using it to throw a disco party in space on our graves. Then the next dimension, those of us like myself with solutions who aren't so demoralized they can't get out of bed, have such a long history of anti-capitalist activity at this point anyone with actual capitalist runs in fear at the sight of me. And probably invests in some blockchain scam instead.
I take responsibility for none of these problems, decades of work against this System give me that right. I worry about most other people I encounter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 30 2019, @04:50PM
worry not. if meaningful space travel wants to work (not just "plant the flag"), recycling will have to ...ermm... take off too.
it will be a case of "new space tech" influencing earthly daily going-ons ^_^
p.s. in the mean time, save what you can from the landfill.