Gothic.net News Horror Gothic Lifestyle Fiction Movies Books and Literature Dark TV VIP Horror Professionals Professional Writing Tips Links Gothic Forum




Go Back   Gothic.net Community > Boards > Spooky News

Spooky News Spooky news from around the web goes in this forum. Please always credit and link your source and only use sources which are okay with being posted. No profanity in subject headings please.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 01-13-2013, 08:28 PM   #1
Saya
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 9,548
Nearly half of food gets thrown out

Quote:
Even as nearly 1 billion people around the world go hungry, we're wasting a staggering amount of food.

People in developed countries throw away 30 to 50 percent of the food they purchase, according to a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. In total, the researchers estimated, 1.2 to 2 billion tons of food is thrown out every year without reaching a human stomach.

A major reason we're tossing our food is that stores push us to buy too much of it, the report found. Additionally, supermarkets often reject shipments of vegetables and fruits that don't meet their marketing standards. As a result, 30 to 50 percent of food produced on the planet is discarded as useless, even if some of it is perfectly edible.

Similar studies have reached the same conclusion. Americans throw away about 40 percent of all food they purchase, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released in August. Cutting U.S. food waste by just 15 percent would save enough food to feed 25 million Americans every year. About 50 million Americans do not have access to enough food, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The amount of food that Americans waste has spiked as portion sizes have grown, according to Dana Gunders, a scientist at NRDC.

There are environmental consequences too. Nearly all food waste in the U.S. ends up in landfills or incinerators, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2446758.html
Saya is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2013, 11:27 PM   #2
Solumina
 
Solumina's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Cali
Posts: 8,030
It's true that a lot of food goes to waste and I think most people are probably aware that they trow away a significant amount but it seems like most people think it is an individual issue and that they just have to be better about it and there is a lot more to it than that so I am very glad to see this mentioning that stores do push people to buy too much. The fact that hot dogs usually come in a 10 pack but hot dog buns come in 8 packs is a perfect example, if you want them you have to get extra of one or the other.

I'm not going to say that consumers are not at fault because we are, our whole attitude is geared towards efficient use of our time and effort, not efficient use of resources. I've always tried not to let food go to waste and I've always been pretty damn tight with my food budget but food costs out here have made me really redouble my efforts and the best way to save on food costs is to spend extra time. I plan out my grocery shopping, I go to Costco once a month for pantry items, and each week I make a plan and I write up my shopping list before I go grocery shopping, factoring leftovers into lunch and I never plan for hot breakfasts because breakfast is the best meal for using up bits of this and that. I plan out exact amounts so I pick out each individual piece of produce, no grabbing a bag of apples unless I need each apple in that bag. I buy meat in large quantities but I as soon as I get home I portion it out and take the time to properly freeze anything that I'm not using right away. Sometimes it kind of sucks putting that time and energy into things and having everything so planned out and not letting myself get something that looked yummy because wasn't on my list but the trade off is that I really truly almost never throw anything away.

I know doing all that isn't something that is practical for everyone, I happen to have plenty of time (the one upside to being in a single income household), but something has got to change and all I can do is share what I have found to work for me.
__________________
Live a life less ordinary
Live a life extraordinary with me
Live a life less sedentary
Live a life evolutionary with me
-Carbon Leaf
Solumina is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2013, 11:51 PM   #3
Versus
 
Versus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,812
I feel like Saya is posting this because she's mad that we made a bigass southwest salad the night before I left and only ate a few bowls. I still feel bad about that. Though I ate the 40 dollars of candy even when it made me sick, though. >.>
__________________
Woke up with fifty enemies plottin' my death
All fifty seein' visions of me shot in the chest
Couldn't rest, nah nigga I was stressed
Had me creepin' 'round corners, homie sleepin' in my vest.


-Breathin, Tupac.
Versus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 09:56 PM   #4
ape descendant
 
ape descendant's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Smexyville, Colorado
Posts: 2,424
At first I was like "ha-ha I plan my food out to prevent waste" then I was like "oh yeah I'm a cog in a huge consumerist system in which waste is endemic", and I made myself sad.
__________________
******

Be Kind
ape descendant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2013, 11:02 AM   #5
BourbonBoy
 
BourbonBoy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Alamo City, USA
Posts: 764
Quote:
Originally Posted by ape descendant View Post
At first I was like "ha-ha I plan my food out to prevent waste" then I was like "oh yeah I'm a cog in a huge consumerist system in which waste is endemic", and I made myself sad.
Same here. Normally I don't buy food I know I won't eat within the week, but living with my older sister and her roommates I've found that I'm the exception, not the rule.
BourbonBoy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2013, 01:53 PM   #6
AshleyO
 
AshleyO's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,700
I try to plan by meals when I shop. Unfortunately that kinda lends towards more buying of beans and tuna fish canned. I don't eat meals. I graze. I should embrace that and stop shopping like I eat meals. I don't.

Sometimes I overestimate how much I can eat. Did that with some steak dinners. I was sad that my roomie couldn't finish one of the steaks. Cause I fucking cooked those mofuggas like a bauws.
__________________
"Women hold up half the sky" -Mao

"God always picks the strangest things to get angry about. Get an abortion or gay married and he'll aim a tornado right at you.

Rip off a million poor people and Wall street has no problems. " -Rebecca B
AshleyO is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2013, 05:22 PM   #7
Saya
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 9,548
Its not just consumer waste, its also wasted before it gets bought.

Quote:
As much as half of all the food produced in the world – equivalent to 2bn tonnes – ends up as waste every year, engineers warned in a report published on Thursday.

The UK's Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) blames the "staggering" new figures in its analysis on unnecessarily strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free and Western consumer demand for cosmetically perfect food, along with "poor engineering and agricultural practices", inadequate infrastructure and poor storage facilities.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...rld-food-waste

I was reading on a thread on tumblr a bunch of comments from people who worked at grocery stores who were forced to throw out good food for some reason or another, like if one egg breaks in a carton, you have to throw the whole carton out. Not EVERY grocery store does that, but its frigtening that any store does that.

I've heard before too that farmers might destroy produce to fix prices.

But such is the reality of sales. When I worked at the craft store, we'd have to throw out a shit ton of perfectly good stuff just because it was in the store too long.
Saya is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-17-2013, 07:50 AM   #8
MissCheyenne
 
MissCheyenne's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: A ship called Dignity
Posts: 1,919
I throw very little away. Anything left over from main meals is either used for lunches the following day or frozen to be eaten at a later date. As a general rule, I don't snack so I don't tend to buy chocolate, crisps etc so they are never in the flat laying around going to waste. I buy fresh stuff as and when I need it so that cuts down on waste as well. I hate wasting anything, after having spent the early years of my childhood in a household where there was very little and everything had to go as far as possible, I'm now very careful and rarely buy any 'luxuries' because I never feel like I need them.
__________________


I am your slice of pie
MissCheyenne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-17-2013, 10:38 AM   #9
ape descendant
 
ape descendant's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Smexyville, Colorado
Posts: 2,424
Quote:
Originally Posted by BourbonBoy View Post
Same here. Normally I don't buy food I know I won't eat within the week, but living with my older sister and her roommates I've found that I'm the exception, not the rule.
I hear ya there. I had some room mates that would buy groceries, put their names on them and let them go bad, while eating out constantly and throwing away their doggy bags full of food. It was maddening.
__________________
******

Be Kind
ape descendant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-17-2013, 09:36 PM   #10
AshleyO
 
AshleyO's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,700
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saya View Post
Its not just consumer waste, its also wasted before it gets bought.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...rld-food-waste

I was reading on a thread on tumblr a bunch of comments from people who worked at grocery stores who were forced to throw out good food for some reason or another, like if one egg breaks in a carton, you have to throw the whole carton out. Not EVERY grocery store does that, but its frigtening that any store does that.

I've heard before too that farmers might destroy produce to fix prices.

But such is the reality of sales. When I worked at the craft store, we'd have to throw out a shit ton of perfectly good stuff just because it was in the store too long.
I want to say that it's all due to liability. You break an egg... person buys carton anyway with a replacement egg... they get sick and then all of a sudden it's the store's fault the person got sick because obviously all that food was bad the moment that egg broke.

I remember reading somewhere that grocery stores tend to lock their dumpsters now because of dumpster divers taking the food out and eating it.
__________________
"Women hold up half the sky" -Mao

"God always picks the strangest things to get angry about. Get an abortion or gay married and he'll aim a tornado right at you.

Rip off a million poor people and Wall street has no problems. " -Rebecca B
AshleyO is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 04:03 AM.