Food Waste

Hunger and starvation is an issue that continues to affect many people around the world on a daily basis. At the same time, a considerable amount of food goes to waste on a daily basis.

Not all solutions have to be high tech. MIT, arguably the most famous science and technology university in the United States, is fighting food waste with a camera.

Tofu is a food product made from bean curd that is much beloved by lovers of Asian cuisine as well as vegetarians. Tofu is packed with protein and, albeit bland by itself, goes with just about everything, both savory and sweet.

The problem of food waste, in which edible food that might otherwise be used to feed people is thrown into the trash, turns out to have become an opportunity for a Boston-based company called Spoiler Alert, according to Tech Crunch. The company has created a software platform that connects food producers to both charities and other businesses who might use excess food products that might otherwise wind up rotting in a landfill.

A study released in October 2017 by Terra Tech (with support from the National Resources Defense Council and The Rockefeller Foundation) analyzed the amount and kind of food waste generated in three major metropolitan areas: New York City, Nashville, and Denver. Participants logged their trash and researchers sorted through it to determine how much and what types of food get thrown away.

We've all cracked a pack or two of Skittles candy in our day, but did you ever wonder how every Skittle has uniform shape? Well, it's because only those who meet the rigorous standard set by Mars have the little S stamped on them, and get sent out to supermarkets. But what happens to all those other Skittles? The ones that are lumpy, or malformed, or just don't have the right look to make prime time?Well, a lot of them wind up getting eaten by cows, according to The Independent.

The United States produces a colossal amount of food, but as folks who watched reports like the one aired on Last Week Tonight know, a huge amount of that food winds up decomposing in landfills. While the issue that unsold food goes straight to the dump instead of to hungry people who would gladly eat it is important, there is another aspect of our massive food waste problem that often gets overlooked.

Americans waste food at a staggering rate; from the farmers who harvest it, to individual households who buy too many groceries. We are all wasting food at an unthinkable rate.