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People are pretty tolerant of things they think they don't have any control over. We waste enough food to eradicate world hunger a few times. Same for unnecessa

People are pretty tolerant of things they think they don't have any control over. We waste enough food to eradicate world hunger a few times. Same for unnecessary pollution, corruption, prison system and many others. > An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally each year, one third of all food produced for human consumption, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. > The amount of food lost or wasted costs 2.6 trillion USD annually and is more than enough to feed all the 815 million hungry people in the world - four times over. > According to the FAO, high- and low-income countries discard similar amounts of food — 670 and 630 million tonnes, respectively — but there is a major difference in where and how that loss occurs. > In low-income countries, loss occurs more often in the earlier stages. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 83 per cent of food is lost during production, handling/storage and processing, while just five per cent is wasted by consumers, according to the World Resources Institute. Conversely, in North America and Oceania, 32 per cent is lost in earlier stages, and 61 per cent is wasted by consumers. So yeah, food waste is still an issue although more restricted to developed countries. https://en.reset.org/knowledge/global-food-waste-and-its-environmental-impact-09122018 https://en.reset.org/knowledge/global-food-waste-and-its-env...

throwawaygh 6y ago
WRT food waste, not really in any practical sense. Maybe if you include food loss, but that’s a much more serious/difficult problem.
- xwdv 6y ago
  The more you feed world hunger the more the hunger grows.
jjk166 6y ago
We produce way more food than the world needs, but where do we produce it? A 10 lb bag of rice may be very cheap to produce, but getting it to a remote village in the middle of a warzone is expensive. Even if the food is grown locally, if it costs 50 cents per piece of fruit to ship them to America where they'll sell for $2 each, that's still dramatically more lucrative than selling them locally for $1 each, which might be a day's wage. Even if you're producing food locally and people can afford to buy it, that could all change if social or political instability wreaks havoc on the local infrastructure and economy. Unfortunately, even in giving food aid to those who can't feed themselves for the prior reasons, you have now destroyed the market for local food production which justifies investment in the infrastructure that will keep them from starving should the aid ever dry up. Best case scenario, the farms exist but grow cash crops instead of food staples; worst case scenario the region loses the experience and the means to grow its own food and is rendered permanently dependent on aid. World hunger is a symptom of global poverty and underdevelopment, and reducing food waste won't fix those problems, it can even exacerbate them. Real progress will require systemic and complicated changes.
- bena 6y ago
  Yes, hunger is currently a logistics problem, not a production problem.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  > World hunger is a symptom of global poverty and underdevelopment, and reducing food waste won't fix those problems, it can even exacerbate them. That doesn't seem true to me. A lot of food is wasted by your retailers, restaurants and households. They are within range of people suffering from food insecurity. > An estimated 43 billion pounds of food were wasted in US retail stores in 2010. 33 This is particularly disconcerting given that in 2016, 12.3 percent of American households were food insecure. 34 Most of the loss in retail operations is in perishables, including baked goods, produce, meat, seafood and prepared meals. 35 The USDA estimates that supermarkets lose $15 billion annually in unsold fruit and vegetables alone. 36 Unfortunately, wasteful practices in the retail industry are often viewed as good business strategies. Some of the main drivers for food loss at retail stores include: overstocked product displays, expectation of cosmetic perfection of fruits, vegetables and other foods, oversized packages, the availability of prepared food until closing, expired “sell by” dates, damaged goods, outdated seasonal items, over purchasing of unpopular foods and under staffing. > US restaurants generate an estimated 22 to 33 billion pounds of food waste each year. Institutions — including schools, hotels and hospitals — generate an additional 7 to 11 billion pounds per year. > Households are responsible for the largest portion of all food waste. ReFED estimates that US households waste 76 billion pounds of food per year. 45 Approximately 40 to 50 percent of food waste (including 51 to 63 percent of seafood waste 46 happens at level of the consumer. 47 In the US, an average person wastes 238 pounds of food per year (21 percent of the food they buy), costing them $1,800 per year. 48 In terms of total mass, fresh fruits and vegetables account for the largest losses at the consumer level (19 percent of fruits and 22 percent of vegetables), followed by dairy (20 percent), meat (21 percent) and seafood (31 percent). Production of food costs in many resources that take a long time to replenish. Even if you remove the world hunger angle from this, why are we producing food in excess? Obviously, there are some good reasons and problems but many countries pile up on excess buffer stock which is a solvable problem without requiring improvement to the storage and other handling infra, right? Same for retailers, consumers and restaurants. To certain extent at least. No one is perfect but the current trend is ridiculous. Check: https://foodprint.org/issues/the-problem-of-food-waste/ https://foodprint.org/issues/the-problem-of-food-waste/

throwawaygh 6y ago

WRT food waste, not really in any practical sense. Maybe if you include food loss, but that’s a much more serious/difficult problem.

xwdv 6y ago
The more you feed world hunger the more the hunger grows.

jjk166 6y ago

We produce way more food than the world needs, but where do we produce it? A 10 lb bag of rice may be very cheap to produce, but getting it to a remote village in the middle of a warzone is expensive. Even if the food is grown locally, if it costs 50 cents per piece of fruit to ship them to America where they'll sell for $2 each, that's still dramatically more lucrative than selling them locally for $1 each, which might be a day's wage. Even if you're producing food locally and people can afford to buy it, that could all change if social or political instability wreaks havoc on the local infrastructure and economy. Unfortunately, even in giving food aid to those who can't feed themselves for the prior reasons, you have now destroyed the market for local food production which justifies investment in the infrastructure that will keep them from starving should the aid ever dry up. Best case scenario, the farms exist but grow cash crops instead of food staples; worst case scenario the region loses the experience and the means to grow its own food and is rendered permanently dependent on aid. World hunger is a symptom of global poverty and underdevelopment, and reducing food waste won't fix those problems, it can even exacerbate them. Real progress will require systemic and complicated changes.

bena 6y ago
Yes, hunger is currently a logistics problem, not a production problem.
searchableguy 6y ago
> World hunger is a symptom of global poverty and underdevelopment, and reducing food waste won't fix those problems, it can even exacerbate them. That doesn't seem true to me. A lot of food is wasted by your retailers, restaurants and households. They are within range of people suffering from food insecurity. > An estimated 43 billion pounds of food were wasted in US retail stores in 2010. 33 This is particularly disconcerting given that in 2016, 12.3 percent of American households were food insecure. 34 Most of the loss in retail operations is in perishables, including baked goods, produce, meat, seafood and prepared meals. 35 The USDA estimates that supermarkets lose $15 billion annually in unsold fruit and vegetables alone. 36 Unfortunately, wasteful practices in the retail industry are often viewed as good business strategies. Some of the main drivers for food loss at retail stores include: overstocked product displays, expectation of cosmetic perfection of fruits, vegetables and other foods, oversized packages, the availability of prepared food until closing, expired “sell by” dates, damaged goods, outdated seasonal items, over purchasing of unpopular foods and under staffing. > US restaurants generate an estimated 22 to 33 billion pounds of food waste each year. Institutions — including schools, hotels and hospitals — generate an additional 7 to 11 billion pounds per year. > Households are responsible for the largest portion of all food waste. ReFED estimates that US households waste 76 billion pounds of food per year. 45 Approximately 40 to 50 percent of food waste (including 51 to 63 percent of seafood waste 46 happens at level of the consumer. 47 In the US, an average person wastes 238 pounds of food per year (21 percent of the food they buy), costing them $1,800 per year. 48 In terms of total mass, fresh fruits and vegetables account for the largest losses at the consumer level (19 percent of fruits and 22 percent of vegetables), followed by dairy (20 percent), meat (21 percent) and seafood (31 percent). Production of food costs in many resources that take a long time to replenish. Even if you remove the world hunger angle from this, why are we producing food in excess? Obviously, there are some good reasons and problems but many countries pile up on excess buffer stock which is a solvable problem without requiring improvement to the storage and other handling infra, right? Same for retailers, consumers and restaurants. To certain extent at least. No one is perfect but the current trend is ridiculous. Check: https://foodprint.org/issues/the-problem-of-food-waste/ https://foodprint.org/issues/the-problem-of-food-waste/