Food for Thought: Hunger and the Bill Emerson Food Donation Act

1422 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of food waste essay

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans wasted up to 40 percent of its food in 2012 (Gunders 2012). In comparison, the EPA and USDA jointly filed a document in 1997 that reported 27 percent of American food going to waste-roughly 96 billion pounds of food (Haley 2013). Using the latter ratio, this means that 40 percent of food wasted by Americans translates into 142.2 billion tons of food a year. If the average person eats 1,996 pounds of food a year (Aubrey 2011), this means the amount of food thrown away could have fed nearly 71,142,285 people. While not all of the food may have necessarily been edible, the numbers still lead to the sombering conclusion that Americans waste an excessive amount of food. The irony becomes almost painful with the knowledge that hunger is such a critical issue in the United States. The Bill Emerson Food Donation Act was designed to protect corporations and individuals from civil liability should the groceries they donate inflict harm. However, this protection is on the condition that the groceries are apparently wholesome and the donations are made in good faith. The Bill Emerson Food Donation Act would make a significant impact on hunger in America if the public were more educated about the bill, and pushed businesses to act accordingly.

It is irreconcilable that the United States can waste so much food when so many are going hungry. According to James Haley of the University of Arkansas, hunger in general has become a more serious issue in the past decade, as the national food insecurity rate arcs its way up to 14.7 percent. The USDA, meanwhile, has taken a surveyor’s approach when tackling the hunger issue. In 2006, the USDA introduced new language that moved away from th...

... middle of paper ...

... University of Arkansas School of Law RSS.
Women's Giving Circle, University of Arkansas, 8 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Gunders, Dana. Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from
Farm to Fork to Landfill. Issue brief no. 12-06-B. N.p.: National Resources Defense Council, 2012. NRDC Issue Paper. National Resources Defense Council, Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.

Reducing Food Waste for Businesses, U.S. Envtl. Prot. Agency. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

Staff, NPR. "Trader Joe's Ex-President To Turn Expired Food Into Cheap Meals."
NPR. NPR, 21 Sept. 2013. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.

United States. Cong. Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities. Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act: Report (to Accompany H.R. 2428) (including Cost Estimate of the Congressional Budget Office). 104th Cong. Cong 104-210. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1996. Web.

Show More
Related

  • Wasteful Americans

    1955 Words  | 4 Pages

    As Americans, we waste more food than many countries even consume. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “The average American trashes 10 times as much food as a consumer in South east Asia” (Hsu). That is about equivalent to eating 10 meals to a consumer in South East Asia’s one meal. We throw away our left over food just because we are done ea...

    Read More

  • Food Insecurity Essay

    1679 Words  | 4 Pages

    President Obama once said, “As the wealthiest nation on Earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and to partner with others.” Food insecurity has always been an issue of the public as well as around the world. For so long, many generations of Americans have been living in poverty or in a low income state. It would be surprise as to how many Americans are living in poverty. As a result of this living situation, there are problems that arise with it. One of the problems is food insecurity. Food insecurity can be simply explained as not having access to affordable and quality food. This problem can lead to serious

    Read More

  • Poverty and Nutrition in America

    2225 Words  | 5 Pages

    Poverty is regarded as the major cause of food insecurity. A household food security depends on access to food. America has access to good healthy food. However, a family too poor to buy them do not enjoy food security. Rosenbaum and Neuberger (2005) report that each year the number of people using government food assistance programs grows. “Food stamps are targeted to those with the greatest need for help in purchasing food… [and] helps to lessen the extent and severity of poverty (Rosenbaum and Neuberger 2005)”.

    Read More

  • Food Insecurity and the Low Income Family

    1476 Words  | 3 Pages

    Food insecurity is an issue faced by millions of Americans every day, and the biggest group affected by this is working families with children. Food insecurity is so big that the United States government has now recognized it and provided a definition for it. The United States government has defined food insecurity as “a household level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food” (USDA.gov). Food banks and anti-hunger advocates agree that some of the causes of food insecurity are stagnant wages, increase in housing costs, unemployment, and inflation of the cost of food. These factors have caused food banks to see a change in the groups of people needing assistance. Doug O’Brien, director of public policy and research at Chicago-based Second Harvest says “’we’ve seen a real shift in who we serve. A decade ago, it was almost always homeless, single men and chronic substance abusers. Now we have children and working families at soup kitchens’” (Koch). These families that are feeling the effects of food insecurity will not be only ones affected by it, but all of America. Studies have shown that there is a link between food security, performance in the classroom, and obesity. If this issue is not faced head on, America will have a generation of children not fully prepared for the workforce and high health insurance rates due to obesity health issues.

    Read More

  • America’s Food Crisis, by Bryan Walsh

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    Walsh, Bryan. “America’s Food Crisis.” NEXUS. Eds. Kim and Michael Flachmann. Boston: Pearson, 2012. 166 – 173. Print.

    Read More

  • Food Stamps to SNAP

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Dolgoff and Feldstein (2003), “the needs and goals of the Food Stamp Program are to alleviate hunger and malnutrition by enabling low-income households to buy a nutritious adequate diet” (p. 132). The program also improved the market for local merchants to produce food for eligible low-income households and other agencies such as the School Lunch Program which safeguard the health and wel...

    Read More

  • Hunger in America

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the world population grows so does the amount of people that live without the proper amount of nutrition and food. Hunger in America can be hard to recognize and many people do not realize that hunger and malnutrition is a problem that many Americans face every day. America is the land of plenty and one of the most powerful and wealthy countries in the world, however is well known that is subject to problem such as starvation, considered as “third-world problem”. For decades, Americans have gone above and beyond to aid other countries that were faced with problems such as malnutrition and hunger. Sadly, the US has failed to aid them and millions are currently suffering from hunger. In addition, with how the economy is now, the effects of hunger are getting worse every day. Many Americans are relying and most of them depend on food stamps and private organizations to help with this crisis. The documentary, “A Place at the Table” by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush present some issues and real life story to explain what is really happening and how hunger and obesity are not problems on opposite ends of a spectrum, but are in fact intricately linked. Poor nutrition, health problem and poverty are all related.

    Read More

  • Addressing Hunger and Food Insecurity in America

    1320 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nearly 20% of the American population goes hungry every day. There is absolutely no way that this should be true considering the fact that there is more than enough food, in regards to a healthy caloric intake, for everyone in America to be well feed every day. The problem is so relevant that many people go to great extremes to get food. These extremes can go as far as committing crime such a stealing, selling drugs, robbing, etc. Even though this is not a guaranteed response it is one of many

    Read More

  • Food Insecurity Essay

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Omnivore's Dilemma Analysis

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our current system of corporate-dominated, industrial-style farming might not resemble the old-fashioned farms of yore, but the modern method of raising food has been a surprisingly long time in the making. That's one of the astonishing revelations found in Christopher D. Cook's "Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis" (2004, 2006, The New Press), which explores in great detail the often unappealing, yet largely unseen, underbelly of today's food production and processing machine. While some of the material will be familiar to those who've read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or Eric Schlosser's "Fast-Food Nation," Cook's work provides many new insights for anyone who's concerned about how and what we eat,

    Read More

  • The Myth Of The Rabid Locavore Analysis

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    Environmental advocate and cofounder of Eatingliberally.org, Kerry Trueman, in her response to Stephen Budiansky’s Math Lessons for Locavores, titled, The Myth of the Rabid Locavore, originally published in the Huffington Post, addresses the topic of different ways of purchasing food and its impact on the world. In her response, she argues that Budiansky portrayal of the Local Food Movement is very inaccurate and that individuals should be more environmentally conscious. Trueman supports her claim first by using strong diction towards different aspects of Budinsky essay, second by emphasizes the extent to which his reasoning falls flat, and lastly by explaining her own point with the use of proper timing. More specifically, she criticizes many

    Read More

  • Sustainability of The Global Food System

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many problems confronting our global food system. One of them is that the food is not distributed fairly or evenly in the world. According “The Last Bite Is The World’s Food System Collapsing?” by Bee Wilson, “we are producing more food—more grain, more meat, more fruits and vegetables—than ever before, more cheaply than ever before” (Wilson, 2008). Here we are, producing more and more affordable food. However, the World Bank recently announced that thirty-three countries are still famine and hungers as the food price are climbing. Wilson stated, “despite the current food crisis, last year’s worldwide grain harvest was colossal, five per cent above the previous year’s” (Wilson, 2008). This statement support that the food is not distributed evenly. The food production actually increased but people are still in hunger and malnutrition. If the food were evenly distributed, this famine problem would’ve been not a problem. Wilson added, “the food economy has created a system in w...

    Read More

  • We Can End World Hunger

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the past ten years the world population exceeded six billion people with most of the growth occurring in the poorest, least developed countries in the world. The rapidly increasing population and the quickly declining amount of land are relative and the rate at which hunger is increasing rises with each passing year. We cannot afford to continue to expand our world population at such an alarming rate, for already we are suffering the consequences. Hunger has been a problem for our world for thousands of years. But now that we have the technology and knowledge to stamp it out, time is running short.

    Read More

  • Food Insecurity Essay

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the United States of America, the richest nation in the world, one in six Americans do not have enough food to eat. Have you ever wondered why there are so many food banks and food pantries throughout the country? They are not simply, as you might think, able to offer emergency food assistance. Indeed, they are the main sources of food for millions of food-insecure Americans. Food insecurity, the state of not having sufficient quantity of affordable and nutritious food, is very widespread and common in America.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Food Waste On The Environment

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    Individuals waste some $14.6 billion worth of food every year, about 47 percent of the total. This mainly consists of food items that Canadians buy with the intention of using in their homes, but never do, so it ends up eventually in a landfill or composted. This is a very sensitive environmental issue as these composting facilities create massive amount of Methane gas that are released into the environment, damaging the ozone and attributing to the man-made manipulation of the global warming/cooling process. Food manufacturing and processing is responsible for as much as one-fifth of the food wasted across the country. Ten per cent of food waste happens on the farm, before even entering the larger food system. Retailers waste another 10 per cent. Restaurants and hotels waste a further nine per cent. The rest is wasted at processing facilities such as food terminals, or during transportation. The report notes that food waste in the travel sector is especially egregious — up to five kilograms per person, per day, according to some estimates. Even using more conservative estimates, these watchdog groups say that we could feed 200,000 inhabitants of poorer countries for a year with nothing more than the food that gets wasted on European airlines every year. On international flights, regulations require any excess food be thrown out after a flight — regardless of whether it was used, cruise liners seem to be the worst culprit, generating the highest per capita food waste. Waste like that costs everyone, not just the person who

    Read More

More about Food for Thought: Hunger and the Bill Emerson Food Donation Act

Open Document