Americans throw away 40% of all food produced in a year. This waste would only be justified if no Americans lived in food-insecure households, which is far from the case. The photo of the homeless man searching among mountains of wasted food personifies this problem. Just as a holocaust survivor puts a face with a tragic event, this image gives the viewer a different perspective of food waste. Instead of only seeing statistics on the unfed homeless, this photo embodies desperation and confusion. It’s the perfect allegory of underlying political, moral, and social issues. The center of interest in this photo is the bedraggled man, searching through the mound of food waste (Figure 1). This photo was taken as part of a movement to bring attention
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The word homeless itself has a depressing connotation. The hunger that the homeless man is assumed to be experiencing due to him scouring a landfill in the photo. The reason the man is there in the first place, is what the photographer tries to use in order to keep the audience’s attention. All of America played a part in the waste of food the man is standing upon, a monument to one’s own ignorance. Sometimes this ignorance is even purposeful. Pondering the hunger of others is not a normal occurrence for someone who does not have a food deficiency. It is difficult to eat and enjoy it in good conscious if one is knowledgeable of the amount of families who may not eat that same day. These statements can be said with no amplification because it is a common occurrence, rather than a rare, worst case …show more content…
When all of the food waste is aggregated, the food is not able to decompose properly. Consequently, the food decomposes without a sufficient amount of air which leads methane gas being released into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. The methane is harmful to the environment, as it is twenty times more potent than CO2 emissions. These emissions could be another reason the photo is layered with unfocused blurs and cloudiness along the edges of the portrait (Figure
The word homeless itself has a depressing connotation. The hunger that the homeless man is assumed to be experiencing due to him scouring a landfill in the photo. The reason the man is there in the first place, is what the photographer tries to use in order to keep the audience’s attention. All of America played a part in the waste of food the man is standing upon, a monument to one’s own ignorance. Sometimes this ignorance is even purposeful. Pondering the hunger of others is not a normal occurrence for someone who does not have a food deficiency. It is difficult to eat and enjoy it in good conscious if one is knowledgeable of the amount of families who may not eat that same day. These statements can be said with no amplification because it is a common occurrence, rather than a rare, worst case …show more content…
When all of the food waste is aggregated, the food is not able to decompose properly. Consequently, the food decomposes without a sufficient amount of air which leads methane gas being released into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. The methane is harmful to the environment, as it is twenty times more potent than CO2 emissions. These emissions could be another reason the photo is layered with unfocused blurs and cloudiness along the edges of the portrait (Figure