Category: Food Waste

Imagine this – you and your friends are just hanging out. Suddenly when a breeze hits you, the pervasive smell of rotting fish, rotten flesh, and decomposing food fills the air. Your eyes start watering and it becomes harder for you to breathe. You start gagging trying to search for fresh air, but there is none. Your image of a perfect day with your friends has been ruined by the stench of rotten food from the landfill nearby. The world will get taken over by landfills and rotten food if we keep on wasting food just like plastic in the future. Food waste is nearly on par with the plastic problem on Earth. Many countries around the world are starting to become aware of the dangers of wasting food, but there aren’t enough people taking action. Tons upon tons of food are wasted everyday mostly in public institutions, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, office buildings, and in our own houses. Even though governments are aware of this crisis, the food problem should be reinforced and known to all people. Preventing food waste should be a big priority because it could save our resources and energy, help prevent climate change, and save the people out there who are suffering from food insecurity.

Fundamentally, if we reduce food waste it can save the number of resources and energy, we put into making the food, which later gets dumped into landfills. It can also save the money that consumers use to buy the food, that’s being dumped into landfills can be put into use. In the U.S, about 4.2 trillion gallons of freshwater, 30 million acres of cropland, 1.8 billion pounds of fertilizer, and 780 million pounds of pesticides that are being used to produce the food is being wasted. Not only does it waste resources, but the amount of energy and time that are being put into use is also chucked into landfills. This is a waste of the farmers’ time and energy that they dedicate to make the food. Annually, about 40% of food or about $162 billion are being thrown into the trash. If that 40% of food were saved, it could have served 58 billion meals, $2.79 each meal on average. Wasting food is a raging blizzard. The farmers and workers are the lost people who are trying to fight off the cold blizzard. The blinding blizzard is the people. People should be aware of the number of resources, energy, time, and money they are throwing out.

Not only we are wasting a large number of our resources but food waste is a pretty big factor in climate change. Decomposing food releases methane, which is a type of greenhouse gas, into the air. Methane is about 20 times more dangerous and potent than carbon dioxide. Right now, food waste contributes to 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste was its own country, it would have been the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter country, behind China and the U.S. Cutting down on food waste could prevent 70 gigatons – 70 billion tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted into the atmosphere. Whenever someone just discards food into landfills, they are releasing toxic gas into the air which contributes to global warming.

Furthermore, people discarding food is wasting tons of perfectly good food that could have been donated to the homeless, or organizations that deliver the food to people who are suffering from hunger. Governments and regular consumers all around the world are starting to notice the effects of food waste, but a lot of them don’t know, too. About 49.1 million people – one in seven people or about 14% of people in the U.S suffer from hunger. An estimate of about 805 million people – one in nine people or 11% of people suffer from food insecurity globally. How can one the wealthiest country in the, still have people living on the streets and starving? If we could save 15% of the food that is being wasted, then it would be enough to feed about 25 million people who are suffering from food insecurity in the U.S. People who waste food is a selfish spoiled child, both think about themselves instead of others. Blinded by greed and selfishness, never thinking about the starving children and homeless people out there. If we are small visioned and unaware of the situation like the spoiled child, then it is murder, leaving the homeless to die from hunger. People are taking food for granted and not thinking about the people out there who are restricted to a small amount of food every day. Food waste is a slap across the face to starving people who are suffering out there, begging and imploring for scraps of food.

“I’ve seen cases of people who ask a plate of food or something to eat when a store – when a restaurant- was closing”, Noel explained, who is a homeless man living in a homeless shelter. “The manager would tell them to go ‘F’ himself. To get out of here, we don’t have anything for you. And then you’ll watch them come out through the back door throwing, just, garbage, throwing bags and bags of food away”.

Many restaurants concluded and admitted that they waste a fair amount of food. Some of them aren’t even willing to donate the food. They fear that they will get sued for serving or donating spoiled food. If they serve food that is either spoiled or moldy and rotten, it will affect the consumer horribly and get them ill. Illnesses such as food poisoning, fevers, salmonella, E. coli, Shigella, and many others. These thoughts have been proven false by officials. According to the director of the Food Recovery Project, Nicole Civita, there has never been a record of a restaurant or any institutions getting sued from donating food. Why? This is because restaurants are protected by a bill that was established in 1996. This bill was called Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, where if the consumer gets ill from eating donated food, it will protect them from civil and criminal liability. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for a restaurant to get sued, and they have no excuse of not donating their leftover food to starving people. Even if restaurants start donating their leftover food and people get suspicions of food poisoning, it will be able to save a bunch of households that suffer from starvation on the streets.

People who are aware that food waste is destroying the environment, time and resources, and society. One might think, how can I help reduce food waste and make people aware of this? If people think about it, anybody can find the answer from home. Donate leftover food to organizations such as Rescuing Leftover Cuisine. Rescuing Leftover Cuisine is a non-profit organization that helps the hungry by rescuing and donating leftover food to homeless shelters. In 2018 they have rescued about 1 million pounds of food and in 2019, they nearly tripled that amount. Or you can become a freegan. Freeganism is the practice of encouraging people to buy as little as possible, instead, they should rely on scavenging, salvaging, and foraging through trash – or dumpster diving for food. Not saying people should all go dumpster diving, but we must reinforce the awareness of wasting food and other things. Save and eat your leftovers, instead of throwing it away. Before you throw out your leftover food, look and smell the food if it has gone bad. We need to be more aware of the food we buy and waste. If we are all committing to these acts, we can reduce huge amounts of food waste and make our environment healthier.

People need to be aware of the food they are wasting. Not just in our homes, but in restaurants, and institutions all around the globe. When you waste food, you are wasting resources and energy to grow the crops, aggravating climate change, and letting homeless people on the streets live through agonizing hunger. People are just feeding the food waste problem, but anybody can change that by taking little steps. People should feel very lucky to have what they have and always has enough, but unfortunately, there are people who struggle with their needs. We are using a lot of our limited resources and yet barely anyone realized we need to preserve a limited amount. We need to reduce food waste so we can change the path of global warming, but it could also feed our fellow humans. A little can truly go a long way. Food waste is not the only problem, all around the world, plastic, toxic wastes, clothing and other things that take a long time to biodegrade can harm the environment are dumped being into landfills.

If we show people how much food is wasted each year does this motivate them to stop wasting food? This can probably help us a little bit from wasting food due to the fact that a lot of people would have an incentive to finally do it. People love money so giving money would be one way to motivate them. Some perspectives I will be writing about is health, financial, society and environment.

Food waste has impacted many people around the world health wise. Many people get very sick and die due to the fact people don’t think about others while are wasting millions of food instead of giving the food to the hungry people. An additional of about 800 million people are hungry around the world. We should make that whatever spare food we have to be use to make another person’s day or week if we’re being honest. A little help like that could change anybody’s perspective. In other words, everyone should be able to eat a plate of food for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

People worldwide are looking for food to eat in dumpsters because they either don’t have enough money to afford food or don’t have food in general. Dozens of people get very ill because they be searching in the dumpsters without knowing that there could be rotten food. Americans waste an estimate of about a pound of food per person each day (Oliver Milman, 2018) In my opinion I think that it’s important that we should reduce food waste because it’s a serious problem in countries like Venezuela and the UK. For example, in Venezuela kids about 10 – 13 years old spend their evenings searching for something to eat so they won’t starve to death or even get sick because they are eating dangerous food (The Washington Post, 2016). In the United Kingdom £13 billion worth of food was thrown away rather than being eaten (Emma Metson, 2017).

Food waste is a tremendous economic waste because all the food that people buy with their own money either one doesn’t even get eaten or just simply thrown away in the trash. Which isn’t the right choice to make because there are millions of little kids suffering from not having a plate of to enjoy for lunch or dinner. The amount of money that’s being thrown away is incredible because in my opinion I think it’s not fair that people all around the world are wasting money out of their own pocket so later on the food can be thrown away in the trash even though the food could probably still be in good shape or in good conditions to be able to eaten. Approximately about $165 billion dollars worth of food each year are being thrown away by Americans. It’s crazy that $ 2,000 dollars are being thrown away a year (CNBC, 2015) Some ways that we can reduce the amount food that is being wasted is by one making a shopping list with only the amount food that the person or family thinks they need in order to feed themselves and families.

Society has been impacted by food waste because most of the time people don’t really realize how much food they throw every day from uneaten leftover. Approximately 94 percent of the food that some of us throw away ends up in dumpsites or even combustion facilities (EPA, 2018). In the most recent years food waste has become a compound fact attracting the attention of scientists and other people. Most of the time food, is also wanted because of buying too much food or buying more food than they need to have or eat. Some estimates reveal that Americans waste as much 60 million tons of food a year. Wasting food is bad for the society in my opinion because it’s the only affecting the people worldwide it’s also affecting climate around us.

In conclusion, yes, there’s many different ways to motivate people by giving them money to stop wasting food. Some ways are by donating food to food banks, shelters, homeless people and maybe local churches. Possibility only buying the necessary food for the week or cooking the amount of food that person or family is going to eat instead just throwing in the trash for people to get sick or even die from eating food from the dumpster/trash. You can also monitor what you throw away by this I mean by making a list of what you throw away every other week or week by week all depends on how much you spend on a daily basis and how much people are living in the household. Some people usually store some food in the freezer to cook or eat in the future instead of wasting it and throwing the food away in the garbage. Keep track of the expiration dates on things like milk, bread, meats, and can foods so people won’t get sick from eating expired food and etc. Finally, I think that it’s very important to think about the kids around the world that probably have anything and go to sleep with an empty stomach due to fact they one don’t have money to afford a plate of food.

Did you know that over 1/3 of all food produced globally goes to waste, The annual value of food wasted globally is $1 trillion, it weighs about 1.3 billion tons. And all the world’s nearly one billion hungry people could be fed on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK and Europe. Can we do anything about it? Can food waste be reduced to help future generations?

This issue is being researched because there are different ways, we could help future generations reduce food waste. It is important because this issue has impacted the whole world and this could be reduced if each individual improved themselves with reducing food waste in their household. The issue with food waste is that it is so ethically wrong, as there are right now 800 million individuals on the planet who are starving, which compares to 1 out of 9 individuals on the planet! So, for what reason do we have a lot of food waste when there are such a large number of hungry individuals on the planet? Each and every destitute individual could live off a fourth of the universe’s food waste.

The most effective solutions that will be listed in this paper are: balancing food production with demand, bettering food harvesting, storage, processing and distribution processes. Creating effective advances and generation frameworks that better stockpiling, benefiting endowments and preparing on better generation practice, individuals buy and prepare food with a plan, so that less food is wasted and food recycling, food reusing endeavors are as of now in progress yet the advances and techniques used ought to be bettered. Starch-rich staple, for example, crisps, bread, scones and breakfast oats can for example be reused into excellent feeds for animals.

Food waste refers to food that is left not eaten and tend to be thrown to waste. This may lead to many larger problems around the world, people may buy access food and end up being thrown away not even opened after the expiry date. This problem can be reduced by individuals by putting the access foods to use. According to the foremost recent statistics published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), annually round the globe, 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted. This figure amounts to a 3rd of all food made for human consumption. There are nearly one billion malnourished or starving individuals around the world, with some 36 million dying from lack of food every year. simply a quarter of the food we have a tendency to waste may keep them properly fed. Quite apart from the humanitarian aspect of food waste, it additionally generates 3.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide, that accelerates climate change, and represents a pointless use of natural resources such as water and land. “We optimized our reach to spread awareness by sharing useful tips and recipes. As a creative and marketing agency, it is in our DNA to communicate messages about the causes that we believe in, and we are thrilled by the response we have received. We hope that the good habits of reducing food waste will continue in 2020 and become a lifestyle to all those who pledged”, says Samia Bouazza, managing director of Multiply Marketing Consultancy. “The response was huge, as we have reached over one million people through various traditional and digital channels”, adds Nihal Fahim, marketing account manager at Multiply. “All those who pledged, did it out of a sense of responsibility on a personal and a moral level. By signing this pledge, people are simply keeping a promise to themselves and society, that they will help by reducing their personal food waste” (Kevin Hackett, January 17, 2018). The global waste management goals are to ensure, by 2020, access for all to adequate, safe and reasonable solid waste assortment services and to prevent uncontrolled merchandising and open burning. Goal takes this one step any, by 2030 to attain property and environmentally sound management of all wastes, significantly risky wastes. As a part of the worldwide call for action, the GWMO is asking on the international community to mobilize international aid, and environmental and climate funds, to help the poorest countries to supply basic waste services to all or any in urban areas. Specifically, to extend the extent of funding on waste management by an element of ten, from the 0.3% achieved over the last decade to a mean of three of total international aid funding within the period from 2015 to 2030 (David C. Wilson, December 1, 2015).

Another point worth noting is the solution to this large problem surfacing our planet, one of the most effective solutions is balancing food production with demand. Premier, priority ought to be fixated on balancing food production with request to decrease the issue of food wastage. The first thing is to decrease the use of normal assets in food production. In hotels, cafes and the food administration industry, hazard the board instruments can be applied. Such a device will progress in the direction of guaranteeing administrators and culinary specialists just produce and cook food as per request or the requests made. Creating huge groups of food has consistently brought about food wastage. So, in attempting to spare food, work and cash, inns and the whole nourishment administration industry should take a shot at the creation of little groups or use the cook-to-arrange alternative. Another affective solution is bettering food harvesting, storage, processing and distribution processes. Creating effective advances and generation frameworks that better stockpiling, gathering, preparing and the appropriation forms. Redistribution can be the underlying procedure for providing or appropriating more food to where there is need and decreasing stock where food is in excess. Reaping, stockpiling and handling ought to likewise be improved by governments and national government organizations by benefiting endowments and preparing on better generation practice, particularly in creating nations. Food waste reduction initiatives is another solution that has a huge impact on planet earth. Grocery stores, retail food outlets, huge cafés and individual buyers all similar can likewise take a shot at their very own creative efforts and innovative endeavors to decrease food waste. For example, singular buyers can reduce their food waste by not really setting high inclination on the absolute best food quality. Now and again even the appalling or flawed food items is as yet edible or can be bought then used to make dishes like soups. Over-merchandizing can likewise be decreased to limit food wastage. One of the hardest solutions to achieve is for every individual to buy and prepare food with a plan so that less food is wasted. The use of meal plans in preparing food can go far in closure in ending food wastage. Customers should just purchase foods as indicated by their arrangements or in little groups to decrease the food that goes to waste because of termination after long stockpiling periods. Food recycling is one of most known solutions. Food reusing endeavors are as of now in progress yet the advances and techniques used ought to be bettered. Starch-rich staple, for example, crisps, bread, scones and breakfast oats can for example be reused into excellent feeds for animals.

The reusing of the food bundling materials can similarly decrease over use of material. In the event that it’s totally unfit for consumption, it can in any case be changed over for different uses as opposed to being taken to the landfills for a specific cause such as discarding methane gas.

In conclusion, food waste has been one of the biggest problems on planet earth that has affected earth drastically. Solutions have been found but they are difficult to proceed because of the expense. If those solutions have been a bigger priority to each individual, food waste could save future generations from larger problems that may occur in the future such as global warming and climate change due to access greenhouse gases. As if now, governments should focus more on spreading awareness and educating people to participate on this global goal and this is the best thing that the governments could do.

A common saying within the English lexicon is that ‘Ignorance is bliss’, meaning that what one does not know cannot hurt them. Americans specifically are ignorant to a great amount of issues, even ones occurring within their own households, and more specifically, food waste. Many Americans grew up regarding food in the same way – that it is infinite and there is no harm done if, say, a bruised tomato or banana is thrown out. Americans frequent stuffed grocery stores that essentially desensitize their consumers to how our food is grown, who harvests it, how it is shipped and processed, and so much more. The lack of respect we have for the food that we have and where it comes from can be attributed to us becoming accustomed from a young age to disregard these sorts of issues. If we were to educate Americas youth about sustainable eating practices, the next generation will be better equipped to combat the blight of personal food waste.

Throughout history, major societal changes have been brought on by those youthful and educated. Movements for the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community and for civil rights are two of the most notable in America’s recent history (Hall, 2016; Carson, 1999; Harlin, 2011). They were not enacted by those who were old and had grown up their entire lives with those ideals; they were initiated by the youth of our country not being satisfied with their treatment (Hoskins, 2017). In their dedication to make these changes, they were able to change so many people’s minds regarding their views of people of differing races and sexual orientations and educated newer generations about these issues and their importance so that they could persist further. The best hope that we have as a country to combat food waste is to do our part to educate the youth of today about this daily problem that they themselves are contributing to.

Food waste is a monumental problem that is currently is currently afflicting our nation. Paratore (2014) stated that 40% of all of our food is wasted. If that percentage could be reduced by even 1%, there would be over $2 million worth of food that would be saved; this saved food could then potentially go to more worthy causes, like the feeding of our nation’s homeless population. By volume, the quantity of food waste at the individual level is larger than corporation level losses for all food categories, except for fats and oils (Buzby, Wells, & Aulakh, 2014). The amount of resources devoted to growing produce and raising livestock is staggering. To produce just one pound of beef, an approximate 1,847 gallons of water must be used (Hoekstra & Heek, 2017). Collectively, agriculture uses 70% of available fresh water, 33% of available land, and 30% of global energy (Pearson, Stone, & King, 2019). Over 33,099 cows were slaughtered in 2018, and since it takes approximately 8 hours of labor to raise one cow, over 263,792 hours are spent raising and slaughtering these animals. The amount of time, effort, and money dedicated to doing this is essentially wasted on the estimated 13 billion pounds of red meat that is thrown out annually by consumers. In comparison, industrial food loss only accounts for 3 billion pounds of red meat loss yearly. The statistics for most other food groups are not significantly better, some even being significantly worse than those for red meat. Over 25.2 billion pounds of vegetables are wasted annually, with 18.2 of that being attributed to consumers, and over 25.4 billion pounds of dairy products are lost, with 16.2 of that because of individuals (USDA, 2019a). As a collective, we are consistently wasting gargantuan amounts of food, a majority of which is fine to consume, just upon the bases of reasons like less-attractive-than-average appearance and misleading sell-by dates.

In addition to the wasted time, resources, and food that come with food waste, there are also tons of greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere for no reason. There are many sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from transportation, electricity, industry, and commercial and residential housing are attributed for most, but 9% is caused by agriculture. This can be attributed to the raising of livestock which produces methane and substances within agriculture soils like synthetic and organic fertilizers and the growth of nitrogen-fixing crops that emit nitrous oxide, but a majority is attributed to cattle emissions (EPA, 2019b). One dairy cow can produce 70 to 120 kilograms of methane annually, which means that an estimated 105 billion kilograms of methane are being released yearly solely due to cattle (Wallace et al., 2019). When that meat is wasted, one is doing much more than simply adding to the United States ever mounting landfills. People are directly impacting methane emissions to our atmosphere. The largest portion of municipal landfills is composed of food, at a near 28% (EPA, 2016). The amount of methane being added to the atmosphere is staggering, and when this meat is not consumed, the unneeded additions to the planet’s ozone layer destruction is meaningless and immensely harmful to our planet. If the amount of meat personally purchased were to be decreased to account for what a typical person actually eats, there would be so much less wasted food in the long run.

Currently, over $1.2 billion worth of food is discarded via lunch food in America, according to the Cohen et al. (2013). When an approximated 13.9% of all households in America are food-insecure, this is simply unacceptable (USDA ERS, 2019a). The best hope that we have to change our current habits is to educate the new generation regarding these topics. To do so, the most obvious choice is to implement food waste education into the already existing nutrition curriculum in our nation’s elementary schools, which would be through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Programs that attempt to improve the health of these children have already been implemented, like the ChooseMyPlate program, the presidential fitness challenge, and Michelle Obama’s Hunger-Free Kids Act (USDA, 2019b; HHS, 2017; USDA FNS, 2014; Concannon, 2012). Often when regarding making changes to the NSLP, the childhood obesity epidemic is the foremost concern. The concept of food waste in the NSLP is so insignificant that there are not even official statistics published regarding it. Though there are not official statistics found concerning it, the concept of food waste is still an epidemic as multiple studies have been published with the hope of determining those numbers (Cohen et al., 2013; Smith & Cunningham-Sabo, 2014).

These sorts of changes to the NSLP, like with the ChooseMyPlate program, are implemented without educating the children whom they affect. In doing this, children will persist to lack a respect for what is being given to them and causes them to waste the food they view as “inedible,” like fruits and vegetables, thus encouraging further food waste. They supplement these healthy foods with ones that are detrimental to their health. The average American eats 87% less vegetables, 75% less fruit, and 86% less dairy than the daily recommended intake (Olsen et al., 2015). Instead, Americans are consuming 70% more added sugars, 71% more saturated fats, and 89% more sodium than they should be (Olsen et al., 2015). A large reason for why this is so much more prevalent in the US than in other developed countries would be because of how the media develops a strong influence over us, specifically from a young age.

Nestle (2013) discusses how the food industry influences its consumers to make poor choices in regard to our diets. We are constantly exposed by advertisements encouraging us to buy over-processed, fat- and sugar-filled products that have serious negative ramifications concerning our health. It would take a considerably larger amount of time, effort, and money to change the diet of the average American if just focused on the adults but changing the tastes of children would be substantially more accessible. In shifting their diets from ones packed with excess carbohydrates and proteins to ones centered around healthy foods and portions would not only aid in combatting the food waste epidemic, but also the exponential obesity problem that our country currently retains. It would not take much to encourage these children to clean their plates or to take less food before lunch. According to the CDC (2019), 18.5% of American children are obese, and these 13.7 million children have been found to have higher chances of becoming obese adults (Gordon-Larsen, P., & Adair, L. S., 2010). In order to make these changes, an amendment would have to be made to the NSLP.

In order to accomplish this monumental goal, cues must be taken from other school lunch programs that conduct food waste education effectively. There are various school lunch programs that do a phenomenal job of educating their children in addition to feeding them health-conscious meals. In Japan, education via food is a major part of students’ days. At lunchtime, students will receive trays of food and serve each other. This simple change enforces responsibility; fosters understanding, decision making, and eating habits for an appropriate diet; acknowledges and develops a respect for those in the food industry; and so much more. The implementation of a more interactive lunch program like this would provide students with a hands-on education regarding food, and as most children are tactile learners, having this kinesthetic sort of program would greatly benefit them. In addition, the program could be centered around developing a respect for the food industry as a whole as well, and deter children from overeating, wasting food, and consuming junk food (Akamatsu, Hasegawa, Ito, & Izumi, 2019). This program is one of the main reasons why the percentage for Japanese people that have a body mass index (BMI) over 30 is only 4.3%, which is the international standard for obesity. As compared the 36.2% of Americans who have a BMI over 30, it is clear that their program is successful and that we are lagging far behind (CIA, 2019).

There are plenty of other countries doing their part as well. In Sweden, for example, there are specific restrictions on food provided in schools in the hopes of deterring that sort of eating; confections, chips, savory snacks, and soft drinks are banned and replaced by fruits, vegetables, red and white meats, and milk (Ministry of Education and Research, 2013). In having a reduction of the access children have to this type of food, they will become less accustomed to it, and thus crave it less often (Ministry of Education and Research, 2013). In analyzing these countries’ systems, the US could certainly draw some inspiration from them. If the United States implemented these sorts of changes to our NSLP and in our lunchrooms, these children’s feelings towards food could be altered for the better, and thus reduce lunchroom food waste, in addition to discouraging overeating and unhealthy eating.

In order for these ideas to actually be executed, a detailed and attainable itinerary must be created. Now is simply not the time to experiment when dealing with this issue. The only way to actually make successful changes would be to implement changes that have been proven to work, like those within Japan and Sweden. With this, the changes must also be mandatory and widespread; there are plenty of regional and state changes that are currently in place whose goal is to reduce food waste within schools, but none of them extend farther than their bordering states, like Delaware’s singular Composting 101 program and Virginia’s Solid Waste Compost Facility Permit (DNREC, 2019; DEQ, 2019). Most of these amendments are centered around what happens after these foods are discarded, and do not even touch upon potential prevention measures that can be taken to combat the problem (EPA, 2019a). There are various simple changes that could be taken to remedy this issue. In providing students with pre-portioned meals that are equivalent to their age group’s daily recommended intake, the children will become accustomed to consuming that volume of food, and thus have less food wasted overall. This would also eliminate the need for trays in schools, which have been found to be linked to overeating, and thus further combat the obesity problem (Thiagarajah, 2013; Rajbhandari-Thapa, J., 2018). In promoting eating practices such as these, children will become more conscious consumers, and develop a lifelong understanding of the problems within the industry so that they may uphold the concept of sustainable eating in their lives, the lives of those around them, and beyond.

Implementing more creative programs in regard to food served within school cafeterias has been shown to encourage healthy eating as well (Packman, 2004); supplying these children basic, boring, and visually unappealing foods does not encourage them to consume them. Instead of having plain noodles and butter, stir fry with vegetables like peas and carrots and a protein like chicken in it could be substituted. In doing this, children will develop a varied view of their foods, and encourage them to eat what they are provided instead of wasting it. As far as education, children could be constantly reminded about what happens to food waste, where their food comes from, and why it is important to reduce the amount that they personally waste via fliers and cards on their lunch tables, and by their lunch monitors. Educating monitors in elementary schools has been shown to reduce food waste as they are constantly surrounded and are shaping the ideals of the children that they are exposed to (Bean et al., 2019). To teach children about the importance of locally produced goods and to teach them to have a respect for where their food comes from, more schools could become involved with programs like the National Farm to School Network, which provides elementary and middle schools with food and farming education via providing services like local food sourcing and school gardens (National Farm to School Network, 2019).

Despite the fact that various federal agencies discourage wasting food, the amount of information regarding how they can reduce their personal food waste is lacking, like maintaining sufficient food storage. An approximate 4% to 10% of food is discarded before it is even served within the cafeteria, due to over-ordering, overproduction, trim waste, expiration, and spoilage (Broad Lieb et al., 2016). There simply needs to be more information provided by the government regarding this issue so that schools will not have to waste unnecessary food. Certain other changes can be made, like in providing financial incentives to reduce individual food waste and implementing economic incentives for corporations (Jovanovic, 2018; Parry, James, & LeRoux, 2015). Until then, regarding changes that can be made post, there are various options that can be made on the part of the schools and by the community in which they reside. There are multiple small organizations that take excess food from their school cafeterias to make meals for their communities, two of the most notable of which is Food Recovery Network (2019) and Food Rescue (2019). Excess and discarded produce can be used to create local gardens for their school’s community.

The key to fighting the food waste problem is in the education of our nation’s youth, and there is a plethora of options that we can make in order to achieve this: varying their diets, educating them on the importance of food waste-centered education and how personally they can combat the problem, and so much more. In making changes like these, future generations will be better equipped to make smart decisions in regard to their food. All of these moves could potentially encourage a deeper care for the food that we eat, who produces it, and the planet on which we live. In teaching these things to younger demographics, it can hopefully extend to future generations to have a greater respect for these issues and to take accountability for their actions to hopefully reduce the prodigious food waste endemic.

A common saying within the English lexicon is that ‘Ignorance is bliss’, meaning that what one does not know cannot hurt them. Americans specifically are ignorant to a great amount of issues, even ones occurring within their own households, and more specifically, food waste. Many Americans grew up regarding food in the same way – that it is infinite and there is no harm done if, say, a bruised tomato or banana is thrown out. Americans frequent stuffed grocery stores that essentially desensitize their consumers to how our food is grown, who harvests it, how it is shipped and processed, and so much more. The lack of respect we have for the food that we have and where it comes from can be attributed to us becoming accustomed from a young age to disregard these sorts of issues. If we were to educate Americas youth about sustainable eating practices, the next generation will be better equipped to combat the blight of personal food waste.

Throughout history, major societal changes have been brought on by those youthful and educated. Movements for the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community and for civil rights are two of the most notable in America’s recent history (Hall, 2016; Carson, 1999; Harlin, 2011). They were not enacted by those who were old and had grown up their entire lives with those ideals; they were initiated by the youth of our country not being satisfied with their treatment (Hoskins, 2017). In their dedication to make these changes, they were able to change so many people’s minds regarding their views of people of differing races and sexual orientations and educated newer generations about these issues and their importance so that they could persist further. The best hope that we have as a country to combat food waste is to do our part to educate the youth of today about this daily problem that they themselves are contributing to.

Food waste is a monumental problem that is currently is currently afflicting our nation. Paratore (2014) stated that 40% of all of our food is wasted. If that percentage could be reduced by even 1%, there would be over $2 million worth of food that would be saved; this saved food could then potentially go to more worthy causes, like the feeding of our nation’s homeless population. By volume, the quantity of food waste at the individual level is larger than corporation level losses for all food categories, except for fats and oils (Buzby, Wells, & Aulakh, 2014). The amount of resources devoted to growing produce and raising livestock is staggering. To produce just one pound of beef, an approximate 1,847 gallons of water must be used (Hoekstra & Heek, 2017). Collectively, agriculture uses 70% of available fresh water, 33% of available land, and 30% of global energy (Pearson, Stone, & King, 2019). Over 33,099 cows were slaughtered in 2018, and since it takes approximately 8 hours of labor to raise one cow, over 263,792 hours are spent raising and slaughtering these animals. The amount of time, effort, and money dedicated to doing this is essentially wasted on the estimated 13 billion pounds of red meat that is thrown out annually by consumers. In comparison, industrial food loss only accounts for 3 billion pounds of red meat loss yearly. The statistics for most other food groups are not significantly better, some even being significantly worse than those for red meat. Over 25.2 billion pounds of vegetables are wasted annually, with 18.2 of that being attributed to consumers, and over 25.4 billion pounds of dairy products are lost, with 16.2 of that because of individuals (USDA, 2019a). As a collective, we are consistently wasting gargantuan amounts of food, a majority of which is fine to consume, just upon the bases of reasons like less-attractive-than-average appearance and misleading sell-by dates.

In addition to the wasted time, resources, and food that come with food waste, there are also tons of greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere for no reason. There are many sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from transportation, electricity, industry, and commercial and residential housing are attributed for most, but 9% is caused by agriculture. This can be attributed to the raising of livestock which produces methane and substances within agriculture soils like synthetic and organic fertilizers and the growth of nitrogen-fixing crops that emit nitrous oxide, but a majority is attributed to cattle emissions (EPA, 2019b). One dairy cow can produce 70 to 120 kilograms of methane annually, which means that an estimated 105 billion kilograms of methane are being released yearly solely due to cattle (Wallace et al., 2019). When that meat is wasted, one is doing much more than simply adding to the United States ever mounting landfills. People are directly impacting methane emissions to our atmosphere. The largest portion of municipal landfills is composed of food, at a near 28% (EPA, 2016). The amount of methane being added to the atmosphere is staggering, and when this meat is not consumed, the unneeded additions to the planet’s ozone layer destruction is meaningless and immensely harmful to our planet. If the amount of meat personally purchased were to be decreased to account for what a typical person actually eats, there would be so much less wasted food in the long run.

Currently, over $1.2 billion worth of food is discarded via lunch food in America, according to the Cohen et al. (2013). When an approximated 13.9% of all households in America are food-insecure, this is simply unacceptable (USDA ERS, 2019a). The best hope that we have to change our current habits is to educate the new generation regarding these topics. To do so, the most obvious choice is to implement food waste education into the already existing nutrition curriculum in our nation’s elementary schools, which would be through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Programs that attempt to improve the health of these children have already been implemented, like the ChooseMyPlate program, the presidential fitness challenge, and Michelle Obama’s Hunger-Free Kids Act (USDA, 2019b; HHS, 2017; USDA FNS, 2014; Concannon, 2012). Often when regarding making changes to the NSLP, the childhood obesity epidemic is the foremost concern. The concept of food waste in the NSLP is so insignificant that there are not even official statistics published regarding it. Though there are not official statistics found concerning it, the concept of food waste is still an epidemic as multiple studies have been published with the hope of determining those numbers (Cohen et al., 2013; Smith & Cunningham-Sabo, 2014).

These sorts of changes to the NSLP, like with the ChooseMyPlate program, are implemented without educating the children whom they affect. In doing this, children will persist to lack a respect for what is being given to them and causes them to waste the food they view as “inedible,” like fruits and vegetables, thus encouraging further food waste. They supplement these healthy foods with ones that are detrimental to their health. The average American eats 87% less vegetables, 75% less fruit, and 86% less dairy than the daily recommended intake (Olsen et al., 2015). Instead, Americans are consuming 70% more added sugars, 71% more saturated fats, and 89% more sodium than they should be (Olsen et al., 2015). A large reason for why this is so much more prevalent in the US than in other developed countries would be because of how the media develops a strong influence over us, specifically from a young age.

Nestle (2013) discusses how the food industry influences its consumers to make poor choices in regard to our diets. We are constantly exposed by advertisements encouraging us to buy over-processed, fat- and sugar-filled products that have serious negative ramifications concerning our health. It would take a considerably larger amount of time, effort, and money to change the diet of the average American if just focused on the adults but changing the tastes of children would be substantially more accessible. In shifting their diets from ones packed with excess carbohydrates and proteins to ones centered around healthy foods and portions would not only aid in combatting the food waste epidemic, but also the exponential obesity problem that our country currently retains. It would not take much to encourage these children to clean their plates or to take less food before lunch. According to the CDC (2019), 18.5% of American children are obese, and these 13.7 million children have been found to have higher chances of becoming obese adults (Gordon-Larsen, P., & Adair, L. S., 2010). In order to make these changes, an amendment would have to be made to the NSLP.

In order to accomplish this monumental goal, cues must be taken from other school lunch programs that conduct food waste education effectively. There are various school lunch programs that do a phenomenal job of educating their children in addition to feeding them health-conscious meals. In Japan, education via food is a major part of students’ days. At lunchtime, students will receive trays of food and serve each other. This simple change enforces responsibility; fosters understanding, decision making, and eating habits for an appropriate diet; acknowledges and develops a respect for those in the food industry; and so much more. The implementation of a more interactive lunch program like this would provide students with a hands-on education regarding food, and as most children are tactile learners, having this kinesthetic sort of program would greatly benefit them. In addition, the program could be centered around developing a respect for the food industry as a whole as well, and deter children from overeating, wasting food, and consuming junk food (Akamatsu, Hasegawa, Ito, & Izumi, 2019). This program is one of the main reasons why the percentage for Japanese people that have a body mass index (BMI) over 30 is only 4.3%, which is the international standard for obesity. As compared the 36.2% of Americans who have a BMI over 30, it is clear that their program is successful and that we are lagging far behind (CIA, 2019).

There are plenty of other countries doing their part as well. In Sweden, for example, there are specific restrictions on food provided in schools in the hopes of deterring that sort of eating; confections, chips, savory snacks, and soft drinks are banned and replaced by fruits, vegetables, red and white meats, and milk (Ministry of Education and Research, 2013). In having a reduction of the access children have to this type of food, they will become less accustomed to it, and thus crave it less often (Ministry of Education and Research, 2013). In analyzing these countries’ systems, the US could certainly draw some inspiration from them. If the United States implemented these sorts of changes to our NSLP and in our lunchrooms, these children’s feelings towards food could be altered for the better, and thus reduce lunchroom food waste, in addition to discouraging overeating and unhealthy eating.

In order for these ideas to actually be executed, a detailed and attainable itinerary must be created. Now is simply not the time to experiment when dealing with this issue. The only way to actually make successful changes would be to implement changes that have been proven to work, like those within Japan and Sweden. With this, the changes must also be mandatory and widespread; there are plenty of regional and state changes that are currently in place whose goal is to reduce food waste within schools, but none of them extend farther than their bordering states, like Delaware’s singular Composting 101 program and Virginia’s Solid Waste Compost Facility Permit (DNREC, 2019; DEQ, 2019). Most of these amendments are centered around what happens after these foods are discarded, and do not even touch upon potential prevention measures that can be taken to combat the problem (EPA, 2019a). There are various simple changes that could be taken to remedy this issue. In providing students with pre-portioned meals that are equivalent to their age group’s daily recommended intake, the children will become accustomed to consuming that volume of food, and thus have less food wasted overall. This would also eliminate the need for trays in schools, which have been found to be linked to overeating, and thus further combat the obesity problem (Thiagarajah, 2013; Rajbhandari-Thapa, J., 2018). In promoting eating practices such as these, children will become more conscious consumers, and develop a lifelong understanding of the problems within the industry so that they may uphold the concept of sustainable eating in their lives, the lives of those around them, and beyond.

Implementing more creative programs in regard to food served within school cafeterias has been shown to encourage healthy eating as well (Packman, 2004); supplying these children basic, boring, and visually unappealing foods does not encourage them to consume them. Instead of having plain noodles and butter, stir fry with vegetables like peas and carrots and a protein like chicken in it could be substituted. In doing this, children will develop a varied view of their foods, and encourage them to eat what they are provided instead of wasting it. As far as education, children could be constantly reminded about what happens to food waste, where their food comes from, and why it is important to reduce the amount that they personally waste via fliers and cards on their lunch tables, and by their lunch monitors. Educating monitors in elementary schools has been shown to reduce food waste as they are constantly surrounded and are shaping the ideals of the children that they are exposed to (Bean et al., 2019). To teach children about the importance of locally produced goods and to teach them to have a respect for where their food comes from, more schools could become involved with programs like the National Farm to School Network, which provides elementary and middle schools with food and farming education via providing services like local food sourcing and school gardens (National Farm to School Network, 2019).

Despite the fact that various federal agencies discourage wasting food, the amount of information regarding how they can reduce their personal food waste is lacking, like maintaining sufficient food storage. An approximate 4% to 10% of food is discarded before it is even served within the cafeteria, due to over-ordering, overproduction, trim waste, expiration, and spoilage (Broad Lieb et al., 2016). There simply needs to be more information provided by the government regarding this issue so that schools will not have to waste unnecessary food. Certain other changes can be made, like in providing financial incentives to reduce individual food waste and implementing economic incentives for corporations (Jovanovic, 2018; Parry, James, & LeRoux, 2015). Until then, regarding changes that can be made post, there are various options that can be made on the part of the schools and by the community in which they reside. There are multiple small organizations that take excess food from their school cafeterias to make meals for their communities, two of the most notable of which is Food Recovery Network (2019) and Food Rescue (2019). Excess and discarded produce can be used to create local gardens for their school’s community.

The key to fighting the food waste problem is in the education of our nation’s youth, and there is a plethora of options that we can make in order to achieve this: varying their diets, educating them on the importance of food waste-centered education and how personally they can combat the problem, and so much more. In making changes like these, future generations will be better equipped to make smart decisions in regard to their food. All of these moves could potentially encourage a deeper care for the food that we eat, who produces it, and the planet on which we live. In teaching these things to younger demographics, it can hopefully extend to future generations to have a greater respect for these issues and to take accountability for their actions to hopefully reduce the prodigious food waste endemic.