Reducing Food Waste In America

Uneaten and thrown out food is often viewed as immoral; with many people in undeveloped nations struggling to have enough food to get by, it doesn’t seem fair we have enough to waste. It’s not right that 870 million people can go hungry every day, and we are still throwing out a third of the total food we produce. This is common knowledge when living in America, we may not like to think about it, but we know how careless we truly are. However, not many know that this wasted food is also incredibly harmful to the environment. Most Americans throw out a large portion of the food they purchase – In the United States, 40 percent of food goes to waste, that’s 20 pounds of food per person per month. Those numbers may be difficult to gauge, but it …show more content…
I believe policies and regulations are not already in place due to the complexity of the issue and the possible imposition on freedom that comes along with it; it would be difficult to get Americans to purchase less food and to have businesses encourage less consumption. This being said, I think the most effective strategy to reduce food waste would be regulations on suppliers and businesses. Grocery stores have more food than necessary in order to fulfill the demands of customers overconsuming, then they must dispose of this excess food. There is no valid excuse for why grocery stores should be able to throw away edible food, when there are people overseas as well as in our cities that would be very happy to just receive a portion. There is currently an initiative out there with 750,000 signatures calling for the ban of food waste present in supermarkets. Specifically, the law would facilitate and obligate, “the largest supermarkets and stores to refrain from throwing away excess food or items which have reached their sell-by date, asking instead that they donate them to organizations which distribute them to the most needy.” (Barilla). Although not mentioned in this article, a possible incentive for the suppliers in this situation could be a tax reduction on donated food, given it costs the suppliers money to find a secondary use for their unwanted inventory. The cost bearers of these solutions would largely fall on the suppliers of the food, such as restaurants, grocery stores, and any other business supplying the public with food; all would experience a loss in revenue. The main incentives associated with passing this bill are positive effects it would have on the beneficiaries, which, of this implemented policy would be