A War Against Food Waste

       According to a report by UNEP and the World Resources Institute, about one-third of all food produced worldwide gets lost or wasted. Only in the United States the 30%-40% goes wasted. Food waste is all that food that you buy, but later don't eat, so you have to throw it away, and is the remaining scarpes on our plate that we throw away because we are to full to finish eating.
When food is thrown out, also fresh water, oil, and $165 billion dollars all dedicated to produce food are resources wasted. To reduce this food waste you could plan menus-shop wisely, eat leftovers by also using your freezer, and donate food to food banks.


       One of the best ways to reduce food waste is planning menus, which is related with shopping wisely. By shopping wisely I mean planning meals, using shopping lists, and avoid purchases that are not necessary. Shopping lists would make your life easier because when you enter a supermarket you know exactly what you buy. This also helps you avoid buying food you already have at home and helps you save money.


       Leftovers are foods cooked and not eaten, which may be eaten after they were stored in the refrigerator or freezer. For example, after going to the restaurant, you could ask to pack up your extras, so you can eat them later. Freezing food is a good way to reduce food waste. You can freeze fresh foods and leftovers, so you have the possibility to eat them before they go bad. For example, at my house, I freeze, or just store in the refrigerator, pasta sauce that sometimes is left, meat, vegetables, soups and many other foods.


       Finally, you could donate untouched food to food banks and food drives. These foods, that would otherwise be thrown away, might go to those people who haven't a steady food supply. There are many organizations that try to provide low or no-cost meals to families in need. Some of these organizations are:

• Feeding America, which is a nationwide network of food banks that tries to put an end to the hunger in the United States;
• Food For Free: since 1981 this organization rescues fresh food from being thrown and distributing it in local emergency food systems;
• Food Bus, which is a public charity that works to maintain systems where unused or unopened food leftovers from elementary schools lunches are saved from being thrown out and then distributed to local food pantries.

Another thing you might do is give the remaining scarpes on your plate to animals, for example pigs, so the food is not totally gone wasted.

     
       A large portion of food waste occurs in households, such as fresh products, such as fish, eggs, milk, fruits, and vegetables, are thrown away. Much of this food waste is due to overcooking or over-purchasing. Some restaurants may also contribute to this problem for example with supersized portions. Others wastes happen because people get confused with the "use-by" and the "best-by" day, which makes them fear that the food got spoiled. Another way of how food gets wasted is that sometimes crops or other foods are left unharvested because their appearance has an imperfection, for example it does not have a regular shape or color, and probably these food might have even tasted good.


       Children in the world suffer for famine because in many places there isn't enough food. Instead we eat a lot and all the food that we buy and later don't eat goes wasted. By not wasting food we may improve the environmental problems as well as societal problems. We can do this in three simple ways: plan menus-shop wisely, eat leftovers by using freezer, and by donating food to food banks. And with our help of reducing food loss and wasted food, we can have enough food to feed the about 805 million hungry people around the world.

Works Cited

"Food Facts: Your Scarps Add Up". NRDC.org. Natural Resources Defense Council. Mar 2013 Web. 6 March 2016

"Food Waste: the Facts". WFD.org. World Food. Oct, 15 2015 Web. 6 Mar 2016

"Recovery/Donations". USDA.gov. United States Department of Agriculture. ND. 13 Mar 2016

"Reducing Wasted Food at Home". EPA. gov. United States Environmental Protection Agency. 19 Jan 2016 Web. 6 Mar 2016

"Sustainable Foodservice: Food Donation". Sustainablefoodservice.com. Sustainable Foodservice Consulting. ND. 13 Mar 2016.