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>Affluent customers are now buying the ugly beets, does that mean more pretty beets go unsold? Can they be donated? Realistically they probably end up on groce
by sithadmin 8y ago
>Affluent customers are now buying the ugly beets, does that mean more pretty beets go unsold? Can they be donated?
Realistically they probably end up on grocer shelves, which are themselves a horrific contributor to food waste. Some small portion of those that will otherwise end up in a dumpster will be redirected to other ends (e.g. 'made fresh' foods offered by various grocers) or donated.
- maxerickson 8y agoWe waste food because we can. If industrial agriculture and distribution were less effective, there probably would be less food waste. And there would probably be lots more hungry people.
- sithadmin 8y agoYou're not wrong, but just because we possess technical capabilities to produce a surplus of goods such that the economy can tolerate high levels of waste doesn't mean that we should. This is an area where we should be making incremental improvements, not only to increase the efficiency of how and where we distribute goods, but in the interest of things like public health.
- maxerickson 8y agoPaying farmers for food that they previously had to give away looks an awful lot like an incremental improvement (payment for more of their crop can be expected to increase their ability to plan).
- gowld 8y agoIf it cost X resources to create Y food yesterday, and thanks to modern technology it costs X resources to create Y+W food today, and W of that food is trashed, why does that W waste matter at all?
- refurb 8y agoFood is wasted because it’s the most efficient method of meeting demand. Don’t forget that solving the wastage issue may increase the overall resources needed. In other words, the extra effort to prevent food waste might cost more than the food waste itself. It doesn’t make much sense to spend $1 to prevent the waste of a $0.50 potato.
- gizmo686 8y agoFood waste is slack in the system. We have a lot of CPU waste because we let the idle most of the time to be able to serve peek traffic. Simmilarly food waste is really just surpluss production of food, which makes us much more resiliant to unexpected drops in production.
- tedunangst 8y agoI assume at some point the grocer realizes their sales are down and reduces their own order, no? There's no profit to them for increased spoilage.