Food Waste In America Essay

Upon entry of your go-to grocery store, the cold refrigeration shelves spark a shiver across your body. You see flawlessly round identical fruits and vegetables stacked impeccably into perfect pyramids. It’s no secret not every apple is the same, so where has all the misshapen but perfectly edible food gone? The government has strict rules about the look of produce allowed to be sold in grocery stores, so farmers have taken it upon themselves to open local markets and sell the food our government has prohibited. I believe shopping at farmer's markets can be extremely beneficial to the consumer, the community and it can help the nation's food waste crisis.

Shopping at a farmer's market provides numerous advantages to the consumer. The statistics

If we don't put a stop to this, food waste can become a huge issue beyond repair. I think that farmer's markets can be the beginning to the end of food waste. Food waste starts at the farm, because the government has extremely strict regulations about the appropriate shapes, looks and sizes of the food that they would like to see in grocery stores %10 of Canadian food waste is food wasted before it even leaves the meadow. The problem with the government's rules is that even if produce is healthy and eatable the guidelines still apply, this is why farmer's markets come in handy. Instead of putting $3.1 billion dollars of good food to waste every single year, simply because it not pretty enough, farmers can sell the produce to customers like you to insure that it’s not going to waste. Another way farmer’s markets reduce food wasted is the consumers has the ability to choose the portion size that they would like, instead of buying too much food because there is no other option. For example, instead of buying multiple clementines in a pre-packaged bag you can choose to buy only the amount that you can eat. Now, I know you're thinking that if we all start going to the market more food will start getting wasted in grocery stores. You are not wrong initially food will be wasted in superstores, but the message will be sent and those stores will start ordering less food.