by Dave Real

Created on: July 16, 2008

At the current trend, American households waste $75 billion worth of food a year. This amount includes trips to the supermarket, restaurant and fast food. The sad part is that this number does not include the waste of farmed goods, which at this point could feed all of Europe and still have leftovers. All of this waste and yet there is still people dying of famine.

Dr. Timothy Jones, from the University of Arizona, has been conducting a project since 2002 that's been monitering the waste of America's food. In a 2004 radio interview he stated that if the farming community would reduce their waste by only 10% then we would see a surge in economic growth along with a significant reduction in pesticide/exhaust pollution. So how much is 10%? How does the tune of $50 billion sound? That is correct, $50 billion not being wasted and allowed to be kept within the economy as a whole. This bump would be felt by everyone in the U.S. and would definately help out with the power of the dollar. The question remains though, how would this help the environment?

The 10% in farming reduction waste would be all inclusive of pesticides that harm our drinking water and other outlying resources, along with the energy that is wasted in the production/manufacturing/shipping of said product. The government does its part in the sense of farming subsidies but to the tune of $14 billion dollars on average, where the plan proposed by Dr. Jones would cost only $200 million. It is also interesting to note that of that $14 billion, only the top 10% of the farmers recieve the majority of that money.

All of this wasted money on food does inadvertently harm the environment. The lack of money allowed for cleaner alternatives harms the environment. The subsidized land that could have been set aside for natural habitat. The wasted money that could have gone into research for a better energy source. There is a long list of woulda-coulda-shoulda's but the only person who can change anything is you.

You determine what you spend your money on; you decide on what you will throw away or not; you decide on what you will recycle or not. Do you have the ability to start a compost heap? Do you have room to make your own food? Can you recycle where you live? There are a lot of questions that one should be asking, especially with the rise of gas prices (which affect the cost of products due to shipping and energy costs) and the decline of the dollar (which makes it harder to sell our product in other contries).

In parting I will leave you with this; scientists have found that nourished people have a higher level of thought process then those who are malnourished. It makes you wonder what geniuses are waiting to be awakened in countries that have famine, all the while we throw away their possible food.

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