leftove food in america

Leftover Foods in America
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Leftover Foods in America
Most of the times when we watch the news or read newspapers on world matters it is hard to miss an article about people dying of hunger in various parts of the globe. Food shortage is a major concern to many governments in especially in the developing nations such that they have specific governmental ministries to ensure food security of its people. Furthermore, among the political agendas in their campaigns is to assure their people on how they are going to ensure there is enough food for their population. The US has shown a concern about the huge amount of leftovers that are disposed of by its citizen especially as it was evidenced during the past year. It is a big irony that on one corner of the world people are dying of hunger and most of them are lucky if they get one meal a day, while on the other corner of the globe; they have excess that they throw away food every day until it has become an environmental concern.
Despite the huge amounts of leftovers and spoilt food that is disposed by the US citizens, a significant proportion is not aware of just how much food is wasted. According to EPA (U.S EPA Website, 2017), one of the things that fill the landfills is wasted foods which amount to millions of tons per year. In 2014, a report indicated that the amount of food wastage that ended in the landfills was estimated to be more than 38 million tons which is a huge large amount while someone else is sleeping hungry (US EPA Website, 2017).

Food wastage has become a huge problem in the United States with a survey from the Natural Resources Defense Council in the year 2012 indicating that the amount of food wasted amount to more than $ 165 billion every year (Myers, 2014). Statistics indicate that an average American throws away an estimated $ 640 worth of food every year in terms of leftovers and spoiled produce according to Fortune (Snyder, 2015). According to American Chemistry Council, 76% of Americans throw away food leftovers every day.
Besides, judging from the statistics of the leftovers thrown away and the percentage of people who throw away food each day, one would be curious to know the perception of Americans themselves. The available news indicates that significant number, 15%, of the Americans are mainly concerned about the environmental problems that are caused by this wastage as they end up in landfills and they end up becoming a major cause of environmental pollution (Snyder, 2015). It is clear from this point of view that most people who throw away are not concerned about the resources wasted but how they are affecting their environment. However, there is also a large number of individuals who are concerned about the amount of food they are wasting while there are others who are going for days without food. Furthermore, though these people would like to donate food to the needy, they have no idea on where to do it and throwing away the food is the last resort. According to Fortune Website, the percentage of people who are concerned about money wasted and people who are going without food is higher and accounts for 79% and 45% respectively (Snyder, 2015).
In spite of the concerns, people are doing little to tackle the issue as the amount of leftovers thrown away has continued to increase each year. However, in the recent past, reducing wastage has become a major concern with more efforts being directed towards donations. There are various channels that have been created for the purposes of food donation in the event that it is more than enough thus redirecting to the less fortunate. This premise is based on the fact while a huge amount of food is disposed of; there still exists a significant proportion of the U.S population that still faces food insecurity (Rossman, 2017). The sad news is that studies showed that more than 30% of food produced in America goes to wastage in terms of leftovers and spoiled produce. The food wastage in America has raised concerned among the people as well as the federal government and there has been increased efforts to reduce food wastage with the government targeting to reduce the wastage by 50% by the year 2030 (Rossman, 2017).
The history of food wastage can be traced back to the 1960s when the refrigerators were introduced in the market and the consumers could purchase more than they can consume (Dewey, 2017). Moreover, though the refrigerator was meant to help people store food for future and reduce the leftovers, it seemed to have encouraged the habit as people store food and they have plenty that they can consume and they end up throwing them away. Additionally, this habit of food wastage was not experienced much before that as the world had just come from the war and saving was a major campaign to restore the economy. Besides, during the war, people were encouraged to donate food to feed the soldiers who participated in the war and they would feel helpful in supporting their country. In addition to that, during the 1960s when the economy started recovering, food started becoming cheap and plentiful as the income increased and agriculture was also productive (Dewey, 2017). A combination of these catalysts made food abundant among many American households.
Contrarily, though the conditions are still the same, the concerns about the costs of food wastage in terms of economic resources as well as the cost to the environment in terms of pollution, both the federal government is trying to tackle the problem. For example, websites have been put in place where Americans can easily access the channels for donating food to the needy instead of wasting them. The campaign is also focusing on creating awareness to the population on the costs of food wastage to sensitize them and try to change their spending habits. Organizations such as the EPA are also leading on the campaign when they provide the consumers with information on how to safely store their food for long periods and avoid the wastage.
Consequentially, there three proposed solutions to this problem. Firstly, a significant number of the populations have indicated that they do not know any available channels in which they could donate their excess food. The solution to this is connecting the people to the channels where they can do not their food easily. Additionally, these channels could be either websites or organizations run by either the government or other concerned groups. The second solution is through creating awareness of the environmental issues and cost caused by the clogging of the dumping sites from the thrown away foods. People are becoming sensitive to the environmental sustainability hence conducting a civic education and campaigns of the contribution to greenhouse emission will be a great strategy. The third solution is through increased taxation on foodstuff. In short, this strategy will be effective since the issue of food wastage started when the prices of food went down.
In conclusion, hunger is one of the major concerns in different parts of the world with massive campaigns being conducted by various stakeholders including governments to ensure food security for everyone. Irrespective of a huge population portion all over the world that cannot access sufficient food due to factors such as famines and droughts, the US still wastes a lot of food by throwing away leftovers. For instance, approximately 76% of the American population indicated to throw away leftovers each day and this has been raising a lot of concerns especially from the government CITATION Ben15 l 1033 (Snyder, 2015). Measures are being put in place to ensure that the problem of food wastage is reduced by 50% by the year 2030. People are being encouraged to donate their excessive foods and also to minimize their spending the amount they can consume.
References
Dewey, C. (2017, October 31). Why Americans have stopped eating leftovers. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/31/why-americans-have-stopped-eating-leftovers/?utm_term=.ab575a3842ed
Myers, D. (2014, May 29). What Do Restaurants Do With Leftover Food? Retrieved February 14, 2018, from The Daily Meal Website: https://www.thedailymeal.com/what-do-restaurants-do-leftover-food/52914
Rossman, S. (2017, May 16). Here’s how many people America’s wasted food could feed. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from USA Today Website: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/05/16/food-waste-america-throwing-away-food-too-soon/320035001/
Snyder, B. (2015, June 24). Here’s how much money Americans are losing from trashed food. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from Fortune.com Website: http://fortune.com/2015/06/24/americans-throw-away-food/
US EPA Website. (2017, April 17). Reducing Wasted Food At Home. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from EPA Website: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-wasted-food-home