CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

U.S Food Waste: Shocking!!

PROMPT January 18th--30 Day





How much do you know about food waste in your country? Spend some time researching this issue and share a fact you learned. How conscious of your access to food are you and in what ways can you be more responsible for reducing your own food waste?





I've been very conscious of food access all my adult life, and not for good reasons. I don't waste food; I don't eat that much, and if I have scraps, the dogs get them.





I expected food waste in the U.S. to be enormous, and I was correct. As of 2015, the estimate is 30-40%. That's more than 1/3, while people are starving!


https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm


As of September 16, 2015, the goal is to reduce food waste 50% by 2030. Gee, I thought we only had to worry about plastics, emissions, and greenhouse gases.





Read how bad this is, from the above site:


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Wholesome food that could have helped feed families in need is sent to landfills.


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The land, water, labor, energy and other inputs used in producing, processing, transporting, preparing, storing, and disposing of discarded food are pulled away from uses that may have been more beneficial to society – and generate impacts on the environment that may endanger the long-run health of the planet.


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Food waste, which is the single largest component going into municipal landfills, quickly generates methane, helping to make landfills the third largest source of methane in the United States.