4 ms·

Americans eat 24M chickens per day. So 2M killed is only a fraction of the number eaten in a single day. However it's still deplorable that we can't find a way

by mrb 7y ago

Americans eat 24M chickens per day. So 2M killed is only a fraction of the number eaten in a single day. However it's still deplorable that we can't find a way to not waste this amount of food.

roebk 7y ago
Not waste this amount of life
- downerending 7y ago
  If it makes you feel any better, you may regard yourself complicit every time you leave a scrap of meat on your plate.
  - mmsimanga 7y ago
    I struggle with leaving plate on my food and I also struggle with my weight. Growing up we weren't allowed to leave food on the plate. To this day I still feel guilty for leaving food on a plate and yet I am overweight. I know the answer is to dish out a little and get seconds if need be. Problem is I live with people who do more cooking than I do and because I am a fairly big guy they can't help but dish out massive quantities of food.
    - BubRoss 7y ago
      Stop eating sugar, watch 'sugar: the butter truth'. This isn't something that is happening -to- you, it is something you can control.
      - downerending 7y ago
        +1 for delicious typo
SamReidHughes 7y ago
Think about it. "Wasting" food is identical to overproduction of food. That's slack in the system that prevents people from starving.
- arcticbull 7y ago
  And yet people manage to starve anyways so I'd say the slack point isn't anywhere close to the waste point.
  - pochamago 7y ago
    People don't really manage to starve in the US. Starvation as cause of death is basically an artifact in the stats, and hunger organizations have spent years conflating it with malnutrition to keep their donations flowing. Nutrition may be a real issue in America, but hunger is not.
robbrown451 7y ago
Americans go through 24M chickens a day, but a significant portion isn't eaten. Think of all the food thrown away at restaurants because it sat too long, food that goes bad in the fridge (oops! guilty), food that kids get served but don't eat (as a parent, I see this a lot). While it is disturbing to hear this, I'm sure this amount of chicken meat is wasted on a daily, or at least close to it.
- ObsoleteNerd 7y ago
  Roughly 40% of food created, is wasted: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-2017-report.pdf https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-2017-report....
  - orbifold 7y ago
    Well the alternative would probably be empty food shelves like you had in planned economies like the DDR and Soviet Union. Just in time food production just doesn't work for things that have to start production ~2-6 months before they are delivered and have a shelf life of ~1-2 weeks. Fresh bread delivered to bakeries regularly sells out here and this is expected, same with Meat and some vegetables. But there is no way to achieve empty vegetable and Meat shelves without pissing people off.
    - alecmg 7y ago
      Bad example. Empty shelves in USSR only occurred at later years and were not a (direct) result of having a planned economy. It was a bad side offect of introducing parts of self-regulation a la market economy. It doesn't take much planning to not waste 40% food.
    - ben_w 7y ago
      Part of the current waste is a desire for photogenic foods; minor blemishes don’t sell as well as pristine items. Another part (not counted in the statistics if I understand right), is obesity. We over-consume to the point of illness. Another part is deliberate over-production in good years so that we don’t go hungry in bad years. This part ought to be considered as unavoidable. Another part is the types of food. Meat is, in general, a wasteful indirection between sunlight and us. Even ignoring any argument about vegetarian/vegan diets, I accept that this isn’t universally so, as some land (I don’t know about fish vs. seaweed) is unsuitable for growing human crops. However, it remains broadly true. In principle, though perhaps not in practice, indoor farming (not just artificial lighting, also greenhouses etc.) could supply a more consistent yield. I can’t comment on the economics of that, not even a little. However, as farming as a whole represents a very small, and still diminishing, fraction of the west’s GDP, my guess is that it could become achievable even if it is not yet achievable.
Tempest1981 7y ago
Here's a good documentary on the topic: "Just Eat It" https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/just_eat_it_a_food_waste_story https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/just_eat_it_a_food_waste_st...
shawabawa3 7y ago
If that other comment that says 40% of food produced is wasted is accurate, that means ~9.6M chickens are wasted every single day
- binaryorganic 7y ago
  No, I don’t think it means that at all. It’s a percentage of all food that gets wasted, not every food.

by mrb 7y ago

Americans eat 24M chickens per day. So 2M killed is only a fraction of the number eaten in a single day. However it's still deplorable that we can't find a way to not waste this amount of food.

roebk 7y ago

Not waste this amount of life

downerending 7y ago
If it makes you feel any better, you may regard yourself complicit every time you leave a scrap of meat on your plate.
- mmsimanga 7y ago
  I struggle with leaving plate on my food and I also struggle with my weight. Growing up we weren't allowed to leave food on the plate. To this day I still feel guilty for leaving food on a plate and yet I am overweight. I know the answer is to dish out a little and get seconds if need be. Problem is I live with people who do more cooking than I do and because I am a fairly big guy they can't help but dish out massive quantities of food.
  - BubRoss 7y ago
    Stop eating sugar, watch 'sugar: the butter truth'. This isn't something that is happening -to- you, it is something you can control.
    - downerending 7y ago
      +1 for delicious typo

SamReidHughes 7y ago

Think about it. "Wasting" food is identical to overproduction of food. That's slack in the system that prevents people from starving.

arcticbull 7y ago
And yet people manage to starve anyways so I'd say the slack point isn't anywhere close to the waste point.
- pochamago 7y ago
  People don't really manage to starve in the US. Starvation as cause of death is basically an artifact in the stats, and hunger organizations have spent years conflating it with malnutrition to keep their donations flowing. Nutrition may be a real issue in America, but hunger is not.

robbrown451 7y ago

Americans go through 24M chickens a day, but a significant portion isn't eaten. Think of all the food thrown away at restaurants because it sat too long, food that goes bad in the fridge (oops! guilty), food that kids get served but don't eat (as a parent, I see this a lot). While it is disturbing to hear this, I'm sure this amount of chicken meat is wasted on a daily, or at least close to it.

ObsoleteNerd 7y ago
Roughly 40% of food created, is wasted: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-2017-report.pdf https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-2017-report....
- orbifold 7y ago
  Well the alternative would probably be empty food shelves like you had in planned economies like the DDR and Soviet Union. Just in time food production just doesn't work for things that have to start production ~2-6 months before they are delivered and have a shelf life of ~1-2 weeks. Fresh bread delivered to bakeries regularly sells out here and this is expected, same with Meat and some vegetables. But there is no way to achieve empty vegetable and Meat shelves without pissing people off.
  - alecmg 7y ago
    Bad example. Empty shelves in USSR only occurred at later years and were not a (direct) result of having a planned economy. It was a bad side offect of introducing parts of self-regulation a la market economy. It doesn't take much planning to not waste 40% food.
  - ben_w 7y ago
    Part of the current waste is a desire for photogenic foods; minor blemishes don’t sell as well as pristine items. Another part (not counted in the statistics if I understand right), is obesity. We over-consume to the point of illness. Another part is deliberate over-production in good years so that we don’t go hungry in bad years. This part ought to be considered as unavoidable. Another part is the types of food. Meat is, in general, a wasteful indirection between sunlight and us. Even ignoring any argument about vegetarian/vegan diets, I accept that this isn’t universally so, as some land (I don’t know about fish vs. seaweed) is unsuitable for growing human crops. However, it remains broadly true. In principle, though perhaps not in practice, indoor farming (not just artificial lighting, also greenhouses etc.) could supply a more consistent yield. I can’t comment on the economics of that, not even a little. However, as farming as a whole represents a very small, and still diminishing, fraction of the west’s GDP, my guess is that it could become achievable even if it is not yet achievable.

Tempest1981 7y ago

Here's a good documentary on the topic: "Just Eat It" https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/just_eat_it_a_food_waste_story https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/just_eat_it_a_food_waste_st...

shawabawa3 7y ago

If that other comment that says 40% of food produced is wasted is accurate, that means ~9.6M chickens are wasted every single day

binaryorganic 7y ago
No, I don’t think it means that at all. It’s a percentage of all food that gets wasted, not every food.