Even Though People Are Starving, Reports Show We Are Wasting Half Of Our Food Supply

http://youtu.be/cWC_zDdF74s

It is just a shame that people would rather waste food rather than give it away just because it doesn’t look quite good enough to sell. What is this world thinking? People are starving all over the world. We need to conserve the food and feed the poor instead of just throwing it away. Watch the video for more information on the global food waste scandal.

That old bunch of carrots or pot of soup that sat for too long in your fridge, then ended up in your trash, doesn’t seem like much. But when multiplied over an entire year and expanded globally, the problem of food waste becomes one of epic proportions.

A report about food waste has Britain’s largest supermarkets on the defense. The report suggests that up to half of the world’s food is thrown away, and many supermarkets play a significant role with poor storage, strict sell-by dates, and bulk offers.

The report entitled “Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not,”1 published in 2013 by the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME), found that more than two billion tons of food is wasted annually.

The study claims that up to 30 percent of perfectly good vegetables are not harvested simply because they aren’t pretty. Thirty to 50 percent of the four billion tons of food produced around the world each year never reaches a human mouth.

If you tally up the total food lost—that which is harvested but never eaten due to spoilage or contamination from mold or pests—the figure for year 2010 is 133 billion pounds of food, or 31 percent of the total food supply.5 And the costs are not just to your pocketbook—many are hidden or at least less obvious. When the resources to produce food are considered, the true cost of this waste amounts to:

25 percent of all fresh water

Four percent of the oil we consume

$165 billion (more than $40 billion from households)

$750 million per year just to dispose of discarded food

33 million tons of landfill waste

One Dozen Ways to Eliminate Your Food Waste

The average consumer wastes 61 percent of the food he or she purchases. You can drastically reduce this with the tools and strategies suggested below. Please also refer to our previous article about proper food storage and how to keep your food items fresher.

1	Shop Wisely	Plan meals, use shopping lists, and avoid impulse buys and “buy one, get one free” deals, unless you’re certain you’ll eat it.
2	Buy Local	Locally produced foods are fresher and keep longer, as well as having a smaller ecological footprint.
3	Buy Funny-Looking Fruits and Veggies	Buying the “ugly ducklings” of the produce section makes use of food that might otherwise go to waste.
4	Learn When Food Goes Bad	Use-by and best-by dates are only manufacturer suggestions and may cause you to discard food when it is still safe and consumable. Many foods are safe and consumable well after their use-by date.
5	Use Your Freezer	Freeze fresh produce and leftovers if you won’t have a chance to eat them before they go bad.
6	Vacuum Pack	One of my all-time favorite tricks, which works for most produce, is to create a “vacuum pack” to help protect food from oxygen and airborne microbes that will accelerate its decay. Leave the produce in the bag it came in from the grocery store, place it against your chest, and use your arm to squeeze the excess air out of the bag. Then seal it with a twist tie. Or use an automatic vacuum sealer like the FoodSaver.
7	Start Juicing	Juicing is an excellent way to use up aging produce while improving your health at the same time. Vegetable juicing also helps with weight management and is a great adjunct to home gardening. You can also compost the pulp.
8	Request Smaller Portions	Restaurants will often provide half-portions upon request at reduced prices.
9	Eat Leftovers	Only about half of Americans take leftovers home from restaurants and actually eat them. Avoid this kind of waste.
10	Compost Food Scraps	Composting food scraps recycles their nutrients and can reduce their ecological impact. It benefits soil, plants, and the greater environment. Composting is not as difficult as you might think. Read all about composting here.
11	Grow Your Own Food	Start your own vegetable garden! With the square foot gardening technique, even apartment dwellers can learn a simple technique for growing veggies on a small patio.
12	Donate Food	Donate excess food and garden produce to food banks, soup kitchens, pantries, shelters—and your friends and neighbors.

How to Be Part of the Solution – Read More

Source: www.wakingtimes.com

Even Though People Are Starving, Reports Show We Are Wasting Half Of Our Food Supply