Posted on 10/04/2016 12:31:42 PM PDT by ColdOne
WASHINGTON -- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said America needs to stop wasting food, even if that means teaching people to cut back on the amount of food on their plates.
Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, the former Iowa governor said long-term food insecurity "is a challenge, because we're going to have to increase food production -- I've seen anywhere from 50 to 70 percent in the next 35 years -- to meet a growing world population."
"But the first step, and the one way the USDA can provide help and assistance to meet this need, is to expand on the -- on the issue of food waste," Vilsack said. "A third of the food that we grow, raise and produce in this country is never consumed the way it was intended. It's wasted."
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
If you want to know about restaurant waste, talk to state and federal health and safety regulators. Then ex-Mayor Bloomberg who managed to pass a law that forbade healthy, good leftover food from being distributed to the poor and needy.
Also, blame the ill-design of modern day refrigerators in which it’s easy for food to be forgotten in dark crispers and dark corners at the back, behind the pickle jar.
This all started in the 90s, as I recall, the mega portion sizes. Food was cheap and restaurants wanted to cut prices without having to reduce revenue, so they started charging the same and giving much much more food.
This is a complete joke. We could grow a lot more food if market forces demanded it.
Which is the root of scads of problems.
It isn’t that terribly daunting to produce more food in a land like this one, even if everybody waddled around like Henry the Hippo.
A lot of people eat too much because of misery. And misery comes from living life wrong in a way that has vastly more to do than calories.
There are two extremes which defy the bible, and you have plunged out of one into the other. Not every neediness situation is a laziness situation.
I thought we had an obesity problem in this country. Apparently not, what with Tom Vilsack berating people to clean their plates.
Next step, ration cards.
I, for one intensely dislike eating out for that reason, but, that said, have you ever tried shopping and cooking for one? Next to impossible without the kind of wastage that Vilsack is decrying.
This isn't by choice, as those of us who live singly have few options available to us...
the infowarrior
Instead of EBT cards, the “folks” should be given seeds for growing Victory Gardens like in the days of yore. Seriously.
What is grown in the garden (requires WORK!) is better for the junk-in-the-trunk types than boxes of Mac ‘n Cheese, chips, soft drinks etc. that I see in a lot of the peeps grocery carts.
America to Ag Secretary - EAT ME
Telling us to buy and eat less food. Yeah, that’ll go over well with the folks back in Iowa!
Instead of hectoring people he could start with the government. Repeal Moochelle's school program that makes schools cook food the kids don't want and throw out. Repeal the subsidy programs that distort markets. Repeal the ethanol mandate so we again treat corn like food. If he really wants to get down in the weeds he could look at local health department mandates that require restaurants and caterers to throw out so much uneaten food.
Yes, indeed. Comfort food. We didn’t use to be so overweight in general. The greatly increased empty corn syrup and corn starch content in our processed foods is awful. Doesn’t satiate the appetite like proteins, fats and complex carbs. All the muffin mamas and pudgy boys I see now is sad.
Anyone who would use the term "useless eater", has an extremely high probability rate of being exactly that...
the infowarrior
Prescient!
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