World Food Waste Analysis

As mentioned in the video and further discussed in the article: “Report: Up to Half of World Food Production is Wasted”, there are severe problems with food waste, especially in the industrialized world. By wasting food, you are also wasting the resources that went into producing it, including energy, water, nutrition from the soil and the gasoline for transport from the fields to the supermarkets. In addition, it costs a lot of energy to dispose of the wasted food. Most of the wasted food ends up in landfills where it immediately begins to rot and produce methane gas, which is even more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide. This production of gas results in global warming and climate changes, which are major threats to the world

Even though food has passed its expiration date, we can actually still eat certain kinds of foods without even noticing changes in the taste and without causing harm to ourselves. A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic states that people are confused by the actual meaning of the expiration date on food. Therefore, 90% of Americans throw food away too early. Consequently, 40% of the food produced in America is wasted every year . Furthermore, a lot of the meat we buy can be used up to nine months after the expiration date if only it has been frozen down, because most bacteria cannot grow in the freezer. Misconceptions of the expiration dates on food are therefore a central reason why people throw out food that could easily still be

We, who do not go to bed hungry, have to show consideration to others since we are not the ones who are suffering. It is our responsibility to react and take action to solve the major problems of the world. Not just with famine and food waste, but also with other major issues, such as war and environmental issues. Even though there have been several campaigns that highlight the problems with food waste and famine, we remain passive. The reason for this might be that we do not really care. The people suffering are simply too far away from us. Another reason could be that we as individuals do not believe we can make a difference. Even if we cannot change the world in one day, we can all take responsibility to fight hunger by making small changes in our daily lives.

In order to participate in the fight against hunger and food waste we must be very specific with what we buy. One way of minimizing food waste is to only buy the food we need and only cook the food we are going to eat. However, if there are times where we have some left over food, we can store it in the refrigerator for next day. Furthermore, at restaurants, we have to make sure that the food we order is what we are going to finish since I have noticed many people order more food at restaurants than they can actually