Research Paper On Food Waste

Food waste is an environmental, economic, and ethical problem that can lead to less calorie intake and unnecessary damage of our assets. Individual behavior can redesign food waste at home and lead to bigger changes in the ecosystem. The problem is Americans throw out more food than glass, paper, and plastic. Also about 25% of food grown, processed, and transported in the US will never be consumed. When food is disposed in a landfill it rots and becomes a significant source of methane— a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.

Looking at the Impacts of Food Waste, In general by wasting food that’s mean we are wasting our money but in different way. . At the same time it is impacting us financially it’s also playing a huge role in the problems we see happening to our environment. The US Environment Protection Agency said, “Generating food waste has significant economic as well as environmental consequences. Whether you’re an individual, family, or business, chances are a considerable portion of your budget goes towards buying food — either for you, your family, or your customers. And since we now throw away more food than anything else, that means we are throwing away a lot of our money.” (“Basics,” par. 2) They went on to say that wasting food does more than impact our economy; it also impacts our environmental severely. We need to look at other countries and see what they’re doing with their food waste mistakes and do them same in our country the

I personally believe that the problem of food waste starts with the people, since whenever somebody buys groceries they get more food than what is necessary. Americans end up buying more than 300 billion pounds of food, when they only need around 5 to satisfy the hunger requirements of every single family in the nation. It becomes impossible to understand when people starve in the streets.

The reason there is so much food in the household wasted is because when American grocery shop, they buy more food than what their family needs or will eat. This act results in food not being eaten in time, then having to get thrown away and wasted.  It is stated that 16 percent of methane emissions produced by landfills are just from foods that have been thrown away (Chan, 2013). There are many things that the people in the United States could do to help decrease the amount of food that is wasted each year.

We have all probably eaten a delicious lunch or dinner, and been so full that we didn't know what to do with the leftovers.  The easiest solution for us is to just throw it away. That is actually the worst solution. Food waste has become a tremendous problem in the United States. One reason why it's a big issue, is because so much edible food is being thrown away. About 40% of all food produced in the U.S. is wasted. The worst part of all of this, is that there are millions of Americans who do not have food. We need to try to waste less food as soon as possible.

In 1997 a study was conducted by Kantor el al. on food loss in the U.S that resulted in 96 billion pounds of food lost “or 27% of the 356 billion pounds of food available for human consumption” (Buzby). That lost and wasted food could make a magnificent change in the amount of starving families that are in the U.S. but still food waste continued to grow. In 2008 food loss and waste went up to 29% at retail and consumer levels. That food could have been used for other purposes if the correct procedures would have been done. All of this food is sent to landfills and processed with other forms of garbage and waste. In 2005 and 2006 11.4% of fresh fruit, 9.7% of fresh vegetables and 4.5% of fresh meat was either lost, wasted or spoiled at retail

America disposes millions of dollars in unsold and out of date food yearly. In fact, four billion tons of food is produced annually, and on average $165 billion of that is wasted (Frasz). Between grocery stores, restaurants, and personal households this total can add up rapidly. Society frequently complains about the unemployed, sick, and poor not having ends meet. However, Americans often contradict themselves by allowing this process of waste to continue daily. These wasted products could be beneficial in numerous ways. For example, donating to charity, food banks, or farmers for animal feed and compost are just a few ideas we could consider other than just throwing our leftovers out. Other countries, such as France are finally starting to counteract against this worldwide situation and the United States should follow in line. America should be implementing techniques to solve this excessive waste problem before the issue becomes out hand.

In the last several years, food waste has become an ever-growing issue in the United States. We are starting to recognize the significance of food waste and the impact it has on our economic, social, and environmental costs. Americans buy more food than they need, this is a commonly known fact. In the United States about 30-40 percent of the available food supply goes uneaten every year. In order to understand and eliminate food waste we must remember that food is the most powerful basic necessity for human beings.

In simple terms, food waste is the loss of food that goes directly to the trash can uneaten or is thrown away. According to a report conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), “about forty percent of the available food in the United States is wasted. Food is just too valuable to throw it away like trash” (Lipinski 2). Furthermore, Lipinski mentions that the NRDC “estimates that getting food on the tables of the people requires up to ten percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses fifty percent of the nation’s land, and absorbs more than eighty percent of freshwater consumed in the United States” (3).

An article by Andrew Shakman titled “2016 Food Waste Forecast” shows just how big of a problem food waste is globally. “This past year was the biggest yet for people working on solving the global issue of wasted food” however, the problem is still not solved (Shakman). This article addresses the issues of wasting food and why it is a problem, especially in the United States. The article lists 17 trends that are involved in the issue of wasting food and how it can be changed. As a nation the United States is one of the wealthiest counties yet wastes food every single day “Andrew Shakman is a food waste prevention advocate and CEO of LeanPath. Shakman has been working at the front lines of behavior change, helping

There is so much food waste in the United States and most of it ends up in our landfills. Much of our fresh produce like fruits and vegetables go bad before they are consumed. Many restaurants serve over-sized portions which also create waste. Filling our landfills with food waste increases greenhouse gases and also increases water consumption.

Over the course of the last 47 years our level of wasted food has increased by 40% meaning that we throw away one third of our food. This problem is also more devastating than most people realize. We waste billions of dollars of food and the amount of food that just the united states wastes in one year could fill 730 football stadiums. This food waste also is hurting the environment in a major way, increasing our CO2 levels exponentially. All of this food that we waste could be going to serving the homeless and starving. The best way to start to make positive change in food waste levels is to begin to recognize the problem, spread awareness for the environmental damage it does, and to start to implement policies that give small businesses

At some point during the day in the United States, countless people are throwing out some food in the garbage, either because it’s not good to eat or because they serve a lot when eating. Otherwise maybe because the food does not look fresh or simply the date that is seen on the packages indicate that the food is no longer safe to eat. Everyday American consumers and food businesses are throwing away tons of edible food into the trash without any concern about the irreversible consequences being done to the environment. The consumers need to understand the differences between food quality and food safety, because of this misunderstanding consumers are unconsciously contributing to the statistics of food waste, and squandering the precious natural resources used to produce food that no one eats. Every year the volume of food waste is growing day-to-day and endangering the environment. Furthermore, the uncontrolled loss of products as a result of inefficiencies in the supply chain for instance: the loss of products during the harvest, storage, transport, or perhaps because the final product doesn’t meet the standard requirements from the buyer. Therefore, it’s crucial to start creating new solutions to address the problem of food waste in the United States, and to minimize the consequences of this huge problem.

This article by Quested, Marsh, Stunell, & Parry goes over some of the various causes for food waste. It discusses the difficulty of cutting back on food waste in observable ways, making people less likely to do it. This is unlike with recycling, where it easy to see a bottle physically be placed in a recycling bin. The action of reducing food waste is also a multi-step process that is usually time consuming, making it even harder for families to cut down on waste. Food waste reduction is also not a one-size-fits-all problem, making it harder to easily cut back on. Storing produce in the refrigerator may have better benefits for some families, while buying larger amounts less frequently could be a better fit for others. Food is also cheaper in larger quantities, which makes it easier to justifiably buy more than needed, as well as making it more difficult for single-occupancy homes to

With the world population growing at a rapid pace, food insecurity is becoming a threat for half of the population. In order to find better solutions to prevent and limit this food waste, it is important to know the impact that food waste has on the world. Therefore, this paper will focus on why we waste food and where