Our wasteful woes
Imagine scrounging around in a dumpster, searching for your first meal within days. You’re dirty, cold, tired, and obviously starving. Now imagine being able to prevent anyone from being stuck in this situation.
Americans waste an abundance of food each year, by several means. Both consumers and large corporations contribute to the amount of food wasted each year.
It is crucial that we find an efficient way to cut down on the quantity of food wasted, which will, in turn, be helpful for the environment and ease the severity of world hunger.
The difference between “best by” and “use by” dates is often unclear to consumers. The “best by” date is commonly mistaken to mean that the food cannot be eaten after the date has passed. In reality, this is the purpose of the “use by” date. The “best by” date simply guides the consumer to when they will be able to get the best quality and freshness out of the product.
One way to decrease food wastage is a federal regulation of “use by” dates in order to clear up confusion with consumers and to equalize the standard of quality food throughout the United States, since each state’s policy differs. The hope is to have a standardized amount of time that can pass for each food before it is considered to be unfit to consume.
Large corporations also heavily contribute to the amount of food wasted in the United States. They often send any extra food produced to landfills. This is a vast amount of perfectly good food that could be used to feed thousands of families around the world knowingly being sent to the dump.
In order to prevent this, landfill bans have been proposed by many. These bans would ultimately limit the amount of food a corporation would be allowed to send to a landfill. In theory, this food would instead be donated to various organizations that help feed people all over the world.
Some argue that food wastage and hunger are simply a myth, claiming that the lack of food among families is due to poor decisions rather than an actual limit to food in the area. While this may be true in some cases, families around the world, particularly in developing countries, often don’t have access to food simply because there is none. However, it has been found that one in nine people across the globe do not have access to enough food to sustain a healthy life. In fact, close to half of the deaths of children under five years of age are caused by poor nutrition. This issue is real, and it is not going to dissipate unless action is taken.
The opposing side tends to make a hasty generalization fallacy, meaning that they take a single circumstance and make a broad generalization based upon it. For example, one woman stated that there is no hunger in America specifically, arguing that food stamps solve this problem. She then generalizes that, because some use the food stamp system, there is no hunger whatsoever in America. This should be avoided because it discredits the millions of other cases and can downplay a serious issue.
If we limit the amount of food we waste, we can see an improvement in the environment and in hunger across the world. Both small and large measures can be taken in order to achieve this. Each of us can do something to help, something as small as donating cans of food to local organizations. Remember, your small contribution could mean the world to someone else.
