Food For Thought

An interesting snippet, with two afterthoughts......

The LA Times takes note of a study on American food from the Natural Resources Defense Council with some eye-popping facts and figures on waste:

• About 40% of food in the US supply chain goes uneaten
• A family of four tosses $2,275 worth of food each year, which translates into 20 pounds per person each month
• Americans waste 50% more food today than in the 1970s, and 10 times as much as people in Southeast Asia
• Supermarket produce aisles are bountiful at a cost: Some $15 billion in fruits and vegetables goes unsold each year
• Uneaten food is the single biggest component of municipal solid waste in landfills

Afterthought 1 - Taking the above into account, perhaps the defenders of the status quo can explain why millions therefore are still starving around the world INCLUDING America? Could it be the shortcomings of a system based on profit rather than need standing in the way?

Afterthought 2 - Do figures like these also knock the teeth out of the usual Daily Mail-esque 'over population' arguments and food shortage myths? It seems there is plenty of food available, but the system that distributes it is clearly not working.

Perhaps a system based on social need would work better........

SussexSocialist