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.
“Do they mention using soybeans for fuel and plastic?”
Soybeans are not fit for food! Bad for all of us! Much better to use for fuel and plastic! If growning soybeans is necessary to put nitrogen back into the soil, it is much better to use it for anything other than food...
On the other hand, using corn for fuel is an oxymoron!
Back in the day, our school lunch ladies were our country moms. OMG, you couldn’t concentrate in class while the smell of their homemade yeast rolls and real fried chicken floated through the hallways. Now days, it all comes prepackaged and tastes like ick.
H.L. Mencken
Cannot be repeated too often!
A 5 lb. tube of ground 70% is $14 compared to $13 for the 10 lb tube just a couple years ago. I do not understand how the gov gets by reporting groceries have only gone up a couple of percentage points. Liars.
Our store doesn’t put out soon to expire meats anymore and haven’t for 2-3 years so get them while you can. Heck, our one and only store (a chain) barely puts out anything. They always pull products that have national coupons and usually don’t accept coupons anyway. They don’t have half the things in the sales circular even produce. I don’t get it if they’re stashing fresh produce in the back until the sale is over - that’s bound to be wasteful. They always have empty shelves. The other day they only had 2 bags of sugar and 3 bags of flour with two of those with holes in them. And they don’t carry larger sizes so you have to pay more for the smaller sizes and there’s more packaging. Yeah, HEB, I’m talking about you. It’s pitiful. It’s like shopping in a third world country.
“...there is very little that goes into the trash. I try to use every scrap of leftovers. I can’t afford not to. If it’s not reinvented for the next meal, it’s frozen or the dogs get a treat. Jars and pans are scraped to get every bit possible out. Bones are cooked down for stock. The juice from canned veg is frozen for stock. Juice from canned fruit is homecanned into jelly and syrup. Pickle juice is used for roasts or drain cleaner. Convenience foods like cereal or tv dinners? Not in this house so there isn’t much for the trashman to pick up. The VERY rare fast food bag is gone through and the salt and ketchup is saved. Egg shells, coffee grounds, etc. go to the garden. Yes, there’s a garden and believe me it’s too hard working it to waste anything.”
Ah, you are after our own heart. What we absolutely cannot use ourselves for food goes to either the cats or the horses. And yes, egg shells, coffee grounds etc to the garden.
Grease that is not useable for anything else goes into homemade soap...we do not buy soap for ourselves or for the laundry...only for the dishwasher. But more often than not the dishes get done by hand with the homemade stuff as they are used. We might sometimes ‘sweeten’ our homemade laundry soap with 20 Mule Team Borax, or with tri-sodium phosphate (the real thing can be bought in paint stores).
We buy marked down bread, marked down meats and produce. Some stores still do this, and we know where they are. We also shop at an Amish bent-n’-dent store and get high end stuff at ‘ridiculously low prices’.
I collect grass clippings and give them to the horses. They have good pasture and good, organic hay, and they like to be lazy by munching on the fresh grass clippings. Just a side note on this, a neighbor dumped some grass clippings (from his chemlawn treated grass) over the fence into the pasture, and the horses would not touch it!
The horses not touching the neighbor’s chem treated grass proves the horses are smarter than the neighbor.
I haven’t seen a bent can store in 30-35 years. It was always so much fun guessing what was inside those unlabeled cans.
“It’s pitiful. It’s like shopping in a third world country.”
Time to find another grocery...
Different kind of records.
One is people keeping records the other is the geological record.
I’ve gotten that! Restaurants make an art of tin foil!
**The horrible drought that never seems to end is rapidly turning much of the western half of the country into a barren wasteland.**
Nonsense. 175 years ago the western half of the US was known as THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT. From west Kansas to California.
***No, but the biggest threat to the American farmer is not drought, it is over production.***
In the 1930s there was so much beef on the market, even during the droughts, that the US government would buy thousands of head of cattle, dig a trench, shoot the cattle and bury them. They also dumped milk, and destroyed as much food as they could to try and get the price up. They would not even give the slaughtered beef to the poor.
One old man told the US cattle buyer that they would rue the day they did this. Ten years later, during WWII that same gov’t cattle buyer was back pleading with the ranchers to raise more beef for the war effort.
Do you have the name of that 'corn lobby'?
Or could it have been private companies engaged in capitalism?
There would be a lot less waste if the Luddites did not block food irradiation.
And still the American consumer pays less than anyone else in the world, in fact in the history of the world, for food.
By way of evidence, food prices fell more than 30% over the 40 years from 1969 through 2009.
One thing my 73 years have given me is a nose for BS, and this story waswritten by somebody with something to sell.
“...The left is populated by slack-jawed yokels....”
As I stated in a previous post: We just call them “The Walking Democrats”.
Us too. This works for most dairy as well. Cream cheese is not great thawed if you plan to use it as a spread. If you cook with it it doesn’t really matter if it’s been frozen beforehand. Ditto sour cream and ricotta. I regularly freeze ‘day of’ yogurt for the kids to eat as ice-yogurt. I usually repackage the meat into freezer ziplocs but most of the dairy gets frozen as is and used within a month or two.
My kids eat much better quality meat than we would ordinarily be able to afford.
My point is why even buy something that people are not going to pay that price! Oh sure one or two will, but in the end, the majority of the product goes to waste. THAT is why I say why put it out there. They should have refused to even buy the stuff. Your answer totally missed the point.
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