Posted on 03/09/2014 6:28:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
According to a stunning new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly a third of all food produced in the United States gets wasted. We are probably the most wasteful society in the history of the planet, and we are also one of the most gluttonous. More than 35 percent of all Americans are considered to be officially "obese" by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately, this era of gluttony and taking food for granted will soon be coming to an end. Thanks to crippling drought in key growing areas and other extremely bizarre weather patterns, a massive food crisis is beginning to emerge all over the planet. If you don't think that this is going to affect you, then you simply are not paying attention. Approximately half of all produce grown in the United States comes from the state of California, and right now California is suffering through the worst stretch of drought on record. Food prices are going to start soaring, and that is going to affect the household budget of every family in America.
Needless to say, a time is coming when Americans will not waste food so recklessly. But for the moment, we still have a tremendous amount of disrespect for the value of food. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we waste a staggering 133 billion pounds of food each year...
Nearly a third of the 430 billion pounds of food produced for Americans to eat is wasted, a potential catastrophe for landfills and a wake-up call to officials scrambling to feed the hungry, according to a stunning new report from the Department of Agriculture.
The just-issued report revealed that in 2010, 31 percent, or 133 billion pounds, of food produced for Americans to eat was wasted, either molded or improperly cooked, suffered “natural shrinkage” due to moisture loss, or because people became disinterested in what they purchased.
Not that we need to stuff any more food into our mouths. As I mentioned above, we have an epidemic of obesity in this nation. In fact, the CDC says that 35 percent of the entire population is "obese"...
Meanwhile, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of US adults (35.7 percent) are obese, which is perhaps the best argument that Americans can offset a large part of the food waste problem by simply eating less. The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the US was $147 billion in 2008; the costs of providing medical assistance for individuals who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight, thereby placing an enormous strain on healthcare costs.
Since we are such gluttons and we are so incredibly wasteful, we should have plenty of food to share with those in need, right?
Unfortunately, we are also extremely greedy and greatly lacking in compassion.
As I have written about previously, feeding the homeless has been banned in cities all over the nation, and other cities have passed regulations that greatly discourage the feeding of the homeless...
Feeding the homeless is about to get harder as a new policy is set to begin this Saturday, Feb. 15, in Columbia, SC. Charities and non-profits will be required to pay a fee and obtain a permit 15 days in advance in order to feed the homeless in parks.
One impacted charity that was interviewed by the Free Times, Food Not Bombs, has been serving food to the homeless in Finlay Park every Sunday for 12 years. The group’s organizer, Judith Turnipseed, noted that the group has an impeccable track record and always tidies up after the meal. But with the new crackdown, Food Not Bombs will have to pay at least $120 per week for the right to feed the homeless.
Since the Columbia City Council approved its exile plan in August, the city has been trying to herd its homeless people to a shelter on the outskirts of town and keep them away from downtown. If charities continue to provide food in downtown parks, the thinking goes, it will allow homeless people to continue to live downtown, rather than being forced to leave.
What is wrong with us?
While we stuff our faces with more french fries and chicken wings, we have an appalling lack of compassion for those that are not able to take care of themselves.
Perhaps we deserve what is coming.
The horrible drought that never seems to end is rapidly turning much of the western half of the country into a barren wasteland.
You can see some incredible before and after photos of the drought in California right here.
If a miracle does not happen, the upcoming growing season is going to be absolutely disastrous. As I have written about previously, California farmers have already decided to allow half a million acres of farmland to sit idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.
And it certainly does not help that the government has decided to cut off water supplies to many of the farmers. The following is an excerpt from a recent article by Holly Deyo...
Government has lost its mind. It is no more evident than their decision last week to cut off water to America's food basket. Squeezed by the worst-ever drought in the state's history, California is dying of thirst. Crushing news was delivered to farmer's that no water would be coming from the Federal government. This dreaded decision was compounded by the Sierra Mountains getting just 25% of normal snowpack. There is no water to replenish already dangerously low reservoirs, so no water for farmers.
Needless to say, there are a lot of farmers that are going to be absolutely crippled by this. The following is from Fox News...
A federal agency's recent announcement that the California’s Central Valley will get zero percent water allocation this year was devastating for farmers already dealing with the worst drought seen in decades.
One of the world's most productive agricultural regions, the enormous valley is reeling after the driest year in more than a century. But last week, the Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation, which supplies water to a third of the irrigated farmland in California through a 500-mile network of canals and tunnel, said it won’t be able to deliver any of the water sought by farmers.
“It goes beyond devastation, you're going to see farms that have been in business 30 and 40 years, they do not have any water, they are out of business,” said Dennis Falaschi, general manager of the Panoche Water District.
If California produces much less food than it normally does, that means that food prices are going to start skyrocketing. Here is more from Holly Deyo...
As one Millennium-Ark reader pointed out in an email last week, after the jump in beef prices, people will look to chicken, pork, fish and turkey. Chicken is already up though not as much as beef. This will, in turn, drive up their costs and affect availability of these other meats. Keep in mind that California also produces all of these proteins plus lamb. Then consider this: Ag Specialists Warn of Higher Wheat Prices Due to Drought. It’s not just beef, weather is clobbering food from all angles.
And please keep in mind that the total size of the U.S. cattle herd has already been shrinking for seven years in a row, and that it is now the smallest that it has been since 1951.
But back in 1951, the size of the U.S. population was less than half of what it is today.
For much more on the emerging food crisis, please see this video.
Let us certainly hope and pray that the drought in California ends soon and that things get back to normal.
But I wouldn't count on that.
According to National Geographic, the scientific experts that have studied these things tell us that it has been quite common throughout history for that region of North America to suffer through extended droughts that last for a decade or more.
One drought even lasted for about 200 years.
So the current drought in California might end next year.
Or it might last for the rest of our lifetimes.
We simply do not know.
But what does seem clear is that the days of taking our food for granted will soon be coming to an end.
Looks like we’ll take our half acre garden more seriously this year.
In my MBA studies I learned that pre-prepared fast food can only be kept for a statutory period and then it must be thrown out. People will not wait 25-40 minuets to have food cooked to order. So, lots of fast food is wasted. Locally, the restruants have put locks on their dumpsters to prevent anybody from eating this thrown away food.
When I worked at a grocery store in the early ‘70’s we threw away huge quantities of food daily because, although it was still good, it was out of date. Most of us would set it on the dock out of the sun but near the dumpster. It was always gone, sometimes within minutes. Now, all of those dumpsters are locked as stores are scared of getting sued by people claiming they took the food and got sick.
One regular picker had a pig farm and made a regular run.
In Before the fat fast food french fry kid pic. Ha!
Fixing laws that forbid giving leftovers to shelters would be a good start
A tiny, but significant, nugget of truth buried within this article.
Great. Now that Peak Oil is dead, Peak Food is born.
Boy, is this guy a downer.
P.S.: It was compassionate libs who shot down food for the homeless - not conservatives. They passed laws that no left-over food from restaurants could be used to feed helpless people.
In NYC, in a restaurant my husband worked in, I watched the health department throw out two beautifully-cooked turkeys because the temperature was off by a degree or two. The chef had to first destroy the turkeys then dump them. He was practically in tears.
“...and right now California is suffering through the worst stretch of drought on record”
OR
“According to National Geographic, the scientific experts that have studied these things tell us that it has been quite common throughout history for that region of North America to suffer through extended droughts that last for a decade or more.”
I would expect that Mr. Snyder was fully aware he used both sides of the coin in his article.
Restaurants are required to throw away all of their unserved food, which is perfectly good stuff.
As for personal gluttony, that is a parental matter, something parents can teach their kids. I know, an old-fashioned idea.
I buy most of my meat this way - wait until the “day of” sale, throw it in the freezer, and save almost half sometimes.
Who will assume the liability for that then?
If someone gets sick from the left overs, or something else, legal aid will come in and sue the store out of business.
I agree with the waste. I have gone to some of those all you can eat places and watched as the clean up person comes around and dumps tons of food that people piled on their plates and left to waste. Then you have the parent who piles a kid’s plate full and he eats two bites and wants to hit the goodies table. These kids waste tons of food in restaurants also. I have seen this so many times it is sick. America has been so blessed. But God is not going to take our ways much longer. Food could be one of the things He slaps us with. The lack of water in food growing regions of Kaliforniastan this year may well be the start.
I note the waste in Walmart also. They have some items in the fruits that are priced way too high that anyone is going to pay that price and thus no one does and the fruit rots in the baskets. Why put it out there at $3.75 a pound and no one buys it. It is a waste.
I’m waiting for Obozo find a way topin this on the Bush administration? I’m sure it’s Bush’s fault somehow.
Public schools waste huge amounts of food. Esp. fresh vegetables, fruit, milk.
Unopened cartons of milk, bananas, oranges, most of the vegetables that Mooch and others insist be put on the tray and kids won’t eat.
Just gets tossed.
Can’t salvage the food, threat of lawsuits.
Grocery stores, restaurants the same. Toss perfectly good food.
The legal system takes much of the blame.
“...It was compassionate libs who shot down food for the homeless...”
Compassionate libs is an oxymoron.
Libs destroy everything they touch. They feast off the productive and then destroy them. We call them “The Walking Democrats” around here. Dangerous, violent, totally useless, good for nothing.
(Meanwhile they zip past in their luxury jets! Gorging on champagne and caviar! And those $1,000 apiece Japanese steaks!)
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
H.L. Mencken
I couldn’t get through the whole article. Do they mention burning corn in our cars. Do they mention using soybeans for fuel and plastic?
This article seems to be some sort of hit piece against the American people possibly to cover their own waste in government and/or a self righteous rant.
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