Minimising Fruit And Vegetables Waste That Is Not Aesthetically Pleasing To The Consumer
Between 30% and 50% of food produced around the world is put to waste and one of the biggest reasons for this is due to the physical standards of the produce (IMECHE 2013). Despite these products still being consumable, they go to waste simply because they do not look good enough to eat. Aesthetics should not play a part in the consumption of perfectly good food and it is important that we find a way to rectify this situation to minimise the vast amount of food that is currently being put to waste.
Aesthetics play such a big part in modern society which is a factor taken into consideration by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers. The
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Reasons contributing to the issue of food waste include Fruits bruised during picking or threshing, Edible food eaten by pests Milk spilled during pasteurization and processing (e.g., cheese), Edible produce sorted out due to quality, Edible products sorted out due to quality, Crops sorted out post-harvest for not meeting quality standards, Edible produce degraded by fungus or disease, Edible fruit or grains sorted out as not suitable for processing, Edible products expired before being purchased, Food purchased but not eaten, Crops left behind in fields due to poor mechanical harvesting or sharp drops in prices, Livestock death during transport to slaughter or not accepted for slaughter, Livestock trimming during slaughtering and industrial processing, Edible products spilled or damaged in market, Food cooked but not eaten, Fish discarded during fishing operations, Fish that are spilled or degraded after landing, Fish spilled or damaged during canning/smoking (Lipinski, B. et al. …show more content…
In developing countries better organised small farmers, technology transfer and education could help the issue (Gustavsson et al., 2011). In regards to processing losses in industrialised countries developing a market for products below the usual or required standard that are edible and bettering production lines are offered as solutions (Stuart, 2009).
As an Artist and a Designer, I can see how my field could contribute to this issue by campaigning about the problem. An issue like this could make good use of the skills in my field, especially in regards to making people more knowledgeable about the problem faced. I have the ability to create visually appealing campaigns and/or presentations. This gives me the skills required to not only educate people on the amount of waste but also enables me to promote consumption of aesthetically displeasing food. Another option would be finding a way to use this produce that would benefit undernourished people, even if it was something as simple as donating these items to a local
In our fast pace society, we base everything on time and money. This need to save money and time has transformed the way we see food and purchase food. Food is an essential part of all cultures. It plays a role in every person’s life. The population has the power to choose what we eat and how the food industry is shaped. There are many important questions that we need to ask ourselves in order to keep the food industry in check. These questions are: How do we know our food is safe? What should we eat? How should food be distributed? What is good food? These are simple yet difficult questions.
If a carrot does not look like the other carrots we typically see with one root, it is not considered “edible” and is given to the food bank. If the carrot has a little bit of green on it due to the sun, it is also donated. Each carrot has to be all the same color and size in order to be sold at grocery stores. Even though the quality of the food is good, due to it’s appearance it is considered “bad.” Unfortunately, companies waste so much food based on appearance. “In the United States (US) today: up to 50% of food produced for consumption is wasted in some stage of production, distribution, or preparation”
132). With the production of food at such a large scale, the issue of uniformity is called into question. The industry revolves around making food so it is easier to produce. The uniformly and scale of farming can enable a person with the intent to do harm to affect a large percent of food in a small attack (Pehanich 2006). With this attack and having uniformly in food making at one place it can put a person out of business since all they produce is affect from the attack. With farms owned by a corporation, like Tyson, food can easily follow this since the company makes money by having a simple and uniform practice. This problem is only going to increase as the years go
More than $31 billion worth of food is wasted every year in Canada and when energy, water and other resource costs are factored in the true cost could be up to as much as $107 Billion each year according to a report published by Value Chain Management International, a consulting firm, which suggests that millions of kilograms of food is wasted every year in Canadian homes, restarants, & grocery stores. This finding shows a 15 % increase from their findings four years ago when the cost was $27 Billion,in 2010. They also go on to say that this is 2% of Canada s GDP and larger than the total economic output of the poorest 29 countries on the planet.
Much of the food is thrown into landfills, where it rots, which has very negative effects on the environment. According to John Oliver, the food left to rot in the landfills releases methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas (Oliver, 2015). Methane is a greenhouse gas, meaning it destroys the ozone layer and contributes to the warming of the earth. By refraining from throwing out so much food, or at least redirecting it to people who need it, food waste would be reduced, and so would its harm on the environment. Not only does the rotting food release greenhouse gases, the resources wasted to deal with the unwanted food are huge. According to Kevin Hall, Juen Guo, Michael Dore, and Carson Chow, “Food waste contributes to excess consumption of freshwater and fossil fuels which, along with methane and CO2 emissions from decomposing food, impacts global climate change” (Hall, Guo, Dore, & Chow, 2009, p. 1). America is essentially using resources like water and fossil fuels, that we could be directing towards a better cause, to dispose of perfectly good food that will then release harmful gases of methane and carbon dioxide. Food waste matters because it is a complete waste of valuable resources and food that is needed by many, while also contributing to the growing problem of climate
Food insecurity is defined by those who either do not have enough or are at real risk of not having enough food for their family. In May of 2009, there were approximately 38 million Americans defined as food insecure. That number grew to nearly 49 million 6 months later, and today there are over 50 million food insecure Americans (1 out of every 6). I find this astounding, because about 30 percent of all produce is thrown away before it even reaches the grocery store. Why? Because of cosmetic imperfections that are stipulated by large grocers that decide how produce should look. That is roughly 100 billion pounds of food a year or 1 pound per American per day that is being wasted because they aren’t pretty. America has begun to cater to only the perfectionist shoppers and has forgotten about those who do not have the money to purchase highly-priced produce. One of the ways we can start to solve this problem is through minimizing food waste at the beginning of the chain. Farmers typically throw away roughly 30 percent of all produce because they do not meet the guidelines for color, shape or number of blemishes. Instead, we should be following the
The majority of people waste food on a daily basis. In fact, in the U.S. alone there is an estimate that over half of the food produced goes uneaten; meanwhile there are people who are in need of food, and it ultimately goes to waste (Dockterman). For example, in his essay, “On Dumpster Diving,” author Lars Eighner writes about his experiences of dumpster diving with his pet dog, during his years of homelessness. According to Eighner, much of the food and materials he came across in the dumpsters were in usable shape, and many items were new. Clearly there needs to be a change in American food waste, in current and, hopefully not so much in, future generations.
The idea of the family farm has been destroyed by large food corporations. As discussed in class, industrial farming typically leads to the mass produ...
And, because food now comes at a low cost, it has become cheaper in quality and therefore potentially dangerous to the consumer’s health. These problems surrounding the ethics and the procedures of the instantaneous food system are left unchanged due to the obliviousness of the consumers and the dollar signs in the eyes of the government and big business. The problem begins with the mistreatment and exploitation of farmers. Farmers are essentially the backbone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production (CSS statistics).
I have chosen the topic of food waste and the impact on the environment. I will discuss the ridiculous amount of food that is wasted each year and the staggering amount of waste that could be avoided just by planning ahead, and purchasing from farmer’s markets and avoiding the main stream supermarkets who set such high standards on the aesthetic of produce that tonnes are wasted for no reason other then shape.
Food waste is defined by food that is lost, wasted, or discarded and is caused through a few different processes. Food is wasted through many different ways at farms, grocery stores, and in homes. Over 40% of the food in the United States, specifically, goes to waste and 97% percent of this waste goes straight to landfills. The main issue with food waste is that the majority of food is being wasted unnecessarily. In stores, food is often thrown out because it does not meet specific standards that dictate what may be desirable to consumers. This issue of food picking is important as foods are not always being thrown away because they have gone bad, but because they have appearances that do not seem attractive. If we hope to lessen the environmental impact we have as a result of the mass
The developed world’s love affair with local/organic farming (peasant farming as Collier describes it) has decreased food production worldwide because it does not use the land efficiently enough as with commercial agriculture companies. It also requires government subsidies that large commercial farming companies do not necessarily need. By increasing commercial farming, the world food supply will inevitably increase over a short period.
The demand for easy to prepare and convenience of food create major scientific and technological challenges that cannot be fulfilled without experts scientific capable of understanding complex chemistry or biochemistry of food system and knowledge about method to preserved food which increases dependability of society towards ready-to-eat has led the greater responsibility for processors in terms of quality, safety and nutrition (McGill, 2011).
If a producer knows they are over producing they can cut back on their production. There is also a food trade model that is being tested as well. Where we can get the over excess food to other countries who may be food insufficient. Munesue explains about “The Partial Equilibrium Agricultural Trade Simulation model, developed by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (was adopted in this study to evaluate the effects of food loss and food waste reduction on food insecurity, natural resources, and GHG emissions through the international food market.” This will give an outlet for some of the food. With the food being able to be used it should reduce the emissions given off from rotting food in the landfills. There model is showing how to reduce food waste. They want to be able to start from before and after harvest to put a stop to the waste. Munesue also states “The present study involved simulating the effects of developed countries reducing food losses and waste by up to 50 % during the postharvest handling and storage, processing and packaging, distribution, and consumption steps in response to the food price crisis, with reference to the EU reduction target of halving food wastage by 2025.” If we can reduce the amount of food that is being produced while also combatting the hunger crisis that exists in so many places we can ultimately help the environment by reducing emissions, deforestation, and water loss from over
Currently, magnitude amounts of waste materials generated from household and industries have become one of the main factors to cause environmental pollution. Especially, as for the leftover food, the portion of leftover food out of total wastes has been continuously increased. Increases in feed cost for animal production motivated to recycle leftover food into animal feed (Cho et al., 2004a). Recycling leftover foods into animal feed has become one of the most important.