digg

Join DiggAbout

Digg Townhall Tonight!
Tune into the live Digg townhall tonight at 5:00pm PST/8:00pm EST.

See the original image at ens-newswire.com —

Amazing Fact: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

ens-newswire.com — Tremendous quantities of food are wasted after production - discarded in processing, transport, supermarkets and kitchens - and this wasted food is also wasted water, finds a policy brief released Thursday at World Water Week in Stockholm. Tossing food away is like leaving the tap running, the authors say.

show profanity settings
expand all
  • mjf7419, on 08/23/2008, -8/+30Half of all food world wide tastes bad too.
  • Haoie, on 08/24/2008, -4/+9When your mother told you to clean your plate, she meant it.
    • donttaseme, on 08/24/2008, -4/+2Now I know that it doesn't matter! I'm going to cook a steak and throw it into a toilet of some vegan ***** I know!
    • kd1s, on 08/24/2008, -2/+1I know, people are starving in China. They're also starving in Africa, but not just there. It's happening in the U.S. too.

      One of the main problems is that in the U.S. we have a mild hoarder mentality. Right now in my fridge I've got 10 pounds of pork loin, 5 of which I'll roast and the other 5 get cut into loin chops. I've also got two pounds of ground chicken, and a pound and a half of kielbasa.

      Then there are the lemons, limes, strawberries, peaches, bananas, celery, scallions, ***** mushrooms, frozen vegs, etc.

      Essentially enough food for two people for about ten days.
      • blackb0x, on 08/24/2008, -0/+3but, you plan on eating all of that food, right?
      • kd1s, on 08/24/2008, -1/+1Yes we do plan on eating all of it. It's roughly ten days worth.
      • CryRightardCry, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2So basically you have enough food for you?
        Uh, it's not "hoarding" when you purchase 10 days worth and eat it in 10 days.
        Also, hoarding would not be wasting it.
        That's not the problem.
        Read the article.
  • lewkus, on 08/24/2008, -5/+6not to mention that when it's not wasted and actually eaten - we eat too much and turn overweight
  • M724, on 08/24/2008, -3/+17It's a shame, seeing how much good food is wasted. Then we say there's a food crisis.
    • sodade, on 08/24/2008, -0/+4It is an overpopulation crisis - not a food crisis.
      • lajaw, on 08/24/2008, -1/+3It''s not an overpopulation nor a food crisis. It's a government crisis. Too many governments prevent the free flow of goods (food) to their populace in order to control them. Where there is capitalism, there is little hunger. But don't confuse capitalism with corporate fascism like we are starting to embrace in the US.
  • jabrthel, on 08/24/2008, -5/+10Does it never occur to anyone that as food prices go up, the problem might actually fix itself by... oh I don't know... making it economically viable for manufacturers, farmers, and consumers to develop ways to NOT waste food? Always with the putting of things on the political agenda! We saw how well that worked out for ethanol! (which of course, thanks to the feds, is a major source of current food problems) (Oh, and don't give me no B.S. about "if only the right people were in charge")
    • BrainInAJar, on 08/24/2008, -1/+8I for one would love to see supermarkets, rather than tossing "off" vegetables and fruit, ship the half-rotten bits to a central location somewhere where it can be fermented in to ethanol for fuel
      • lajaw, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2Or feed it to livestock like pigs. Just cull the meat out and feed them all the vegetable matter. Feed the meat to dogs and cats. I've made many thousands of pounds of pork using this method.
    • jabrthel, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2Go figure, they already do something like that because it's economically viable... the vegetables that are tossed "off" make there way to a central location known as a "dump" ;) Here, as the article already states, this "dump" releases methane due to bacteria eating off the "trash". Apparently, for large "dumps", they already capture the methane in order to use it for various purposes. For the smaller of these central locations known as "dumps", a private market firm has already been set up in order to explore ways to economically capture the methane that's being released. And it's all been done without someone needing to make it a political agenda! Wow, it's amazing that people are able to wipe their asses without a reminder from their congressman! Take it for what you will.

      http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7048
      • sodade, on 08/24/2008, -1/+2Now if we can get douchebag Republicans out of the ***** way, we can structure the tax system to make these things even more economically viable. Imagine if our government taxed gas for the ACTUAL cost to society to deal with this toxic crap. The point is that, like it or not little miss rand, our government is responsible for setting up the parameters of the "free market" - they have been very negligent in their responsibility, which at its core is very ***** simple:

        1. Make things that have a negative impact to society cost more to "produce" (assuming widgets).

        2. Make things that have a positive impact to society cost less.
      • jabrthel, on 08/26/2008, -0/+1Wow, first mistake... I'm not a follower of Rand, don't like her philosophy and think it's fundamentally flawed. Go figure! Perhaps if you had called me a Von Mises, then I'd respect you. Also, I know you're not directly calling me a republican, but just to clear things up... I think politics inherently lead to oppression, and don't throw my vote behind anyone.

        Second mistake... "if only governments taxed oil to make it economically viable... blah blah blah". If you would look at the implicit subsidies that govt's give oil... by say... the first gulf war and the current war in Iraq, and state that we needed to stop meddling in other countries by installing puppet regimes and invading them, then I'd respect you. After all, the only reason we got in the first war with Iraq was because they attacked Kuwait, a monarchy that was selling oil to the U.S. at preferential prices.

        And... I think we should stop using up so much of our natural resources on earth... after all they're limited and we owe it to future generations to save them. I propose we tax all metals mined on earth and give the proceeds to space companies that mine metal from asteroids! Yeah! If we only did that then we'd be preparing for the future, man! Stupid republicans! That sounds crazy because it is... and the only reason why people fool themselves into thinking restructuring the tax structure to encourage the kind of investment you support is somehow different, is that those investments can either already make it in the free market or are only a few years/decades from being viable. Besides, who gets to determine what's good for society? I guess that's why we elect emperor-presidents... so that they can decide for us.
      • jabrthel, on 08/26/2008, -0/+1Oh, yeah, let's get douchebag republicans out of the way! Yes! And if once they're out of political power they're still being uppity and causing problems... we can put 'em all in concentration camps! If that becomes too expensive, we can just go ahead and use their body-parts to replace ours and run our cars off their burning fat, the ultimate renewable resource! Ohh... mein kampf.

        Anyways, divisiveness is good. Verbal sparring is good. Heated debate is good. All that, at the very least, forces all sides to think.
    • glutamate, on 08/24/2008, -0/+3Thanks for reassuring me that there are some non-retards out there.

      I can see the stupid hippies going "Yeah, we should ban waste duuuude"

      The solutions need be nothing more than economic.
  • yyymilitia, on 08/24/2008, -4/+30Fact: Half of all food is consumed. You need to be optimistic.
  • THUNDERC4T5, on 08/24/2008, -0/+6It's not just individuals simply not eating all of what they have - think of all the restaurants in your town dumping out unused product.
  • Pake, on 08/24/2008, -0/+6One need not look past our refrigerators and pantries to know that.
  • tomega, on 08/24/2008, -9/+3Heh and how exactly you can waste water?
  • thrillki1l, on 08/24/2008, -5/+5Ok maybe I'm not the perfect green person. I try to not waste things. They mention that it wastes water, but seriously whats the big deal? The Earth is 60% water. I know there is the energy needed to run water pumps and desalinization plants but are there really that much of them that is makes a big difference. I'm being serious somebody please tell me if i'm mistaken and it there are a bunch of them and it takes a lot of energy?
    • anotherjack, on 08/24/2008, -0/+3That 60% isn't all available. Consider where water is located and whether its drinkable.

      Water can be physically unavailable, hidden far underground, or located in a hostile country. It can be contaminated by natural substances like lead, cyanide or uranium. Theres also pollution, such as feces from humans, or pesticide and fertilizer runoff from farms, or industrial waste from factories. Much of the worlds water is sea water - not drinkable.

      Currently desalinization isn't all that productive, cost effective, or energy efficient. Also, it seems smarter to stop f*cking up our drinkable water with pollution before we start trying to process sea water. The "water table" which is the level thats reaching up to us from the ground, is getting lower. Not good. Where it is scarce, people and countries fight each other for water rights, and lack of it causes famine and war, so... that's the big deal.
    • topbob, on 08/24/2008, -0/+3about 70% of the earth is ocean.
      98% of the water on earth is the ocean.
      2% of the water is fresh.
      1.6% (and dropping) of that is frozen in polar ice.
      0.36% is the water you, me, and everyone, live off of.
      In case you forgot, no, you can't water plants with salt water.
      • warsongs7, on 08/25/2008, -0/+1Other than genetically modified plants that can resist high levels of salt.
      • Iztikeit, on 08/25/2008, -0/+1Genetically modifying things at present is ignorant and should not be done on a industrial scale.
    • Obelia, on 08/24/2008, -0/+1I live in a flat county, where the water authority has to pay a lot to pump water. According to their leaflets they are the number 1 consumer of energy in that region. So yes, it can be a big deal, but it varies a lot according to your geography.
  • SammyStephens, on 08/24/2008, -3/+19it's funny because people are starving
  • mexican102690, on 08/24/2008, -6/+3thats not true i never waste food. *drinks some pepsi* ewww its warm. *throws away*
  • slvrbullet87, on 08/24/2008, -5/+5Let me get this straight... food goes bad over time, when you have to send food on boats and then trains to get to impoverished areas it takes time. Some of the food is going to rot, we cant change that
    • cadmiumpaint, on 08/24/2008, -2/+1they have things like preservatives...canning, vaccum packaging. all kinds of things that can preserve food.

      this isn't the year 1825 y'know. we have technology and *****.
      • guk6kk, on 08/24/2008, -1/+1Who's going to pay for that?
      • benologist, on 08/24/2008, -1/+2Someone with money and a conscience? It's a rare combo but it does happen sometimes.
      • cadmiumpaint, on 08/24/2008, -0/+1any major supermarket chain could get millions in tax write offs by donating old yet edible non perishable food....not to mention the millions worth of free positive PR

        think please.
  • extirpater, on 08/24/2008, -1/+1i thought this as a commercial, "...wasted because it's not made by mcdonalds" etc. stupid me.
  • Herostratos, on 08/24/2008, -0/+11Habe they asked themselves: Why do they waste food? After all, food does cost money and the businesses and individuals have every incentive to minimize the loss of food. The answer must be that the cost of preventing the loss is greater than the cost of the food itself. If one is concerned with producing the largest amount of food then we ought to waste this food.

    An example: Say that it takes the amount of resources needed to produce 1.2 kg of grain to keep 1 kg of grain from getting wasted. Obviously the rational thing is to not care about the wasted grain.

    Buried for trying to find an easy answer to a complex question.
    • glutamate, on 08/24/2008, -0/+3Economics FTW.

      Retards with simplistic ideas FTL.
  • Herostratos, on 08/24/2008, -7/+1Habe they asked themselves: Why do they waste food? After all, food does cost money and the businesses and individuals have every incentive to minimize the loss of food. The answer must be that the cost of preventing the loss is greater than the cost of the food itself. If one is concerned with producing the largest amount of food then we ought to waste this food.

    An example: Say that it takes the amount of resources needed to produce 1.2 kg of grain to keep 1 kg of grain from getting wasted. Obviously the rational thing is to not care about the wasted grain.

    Buried for trying to find an easy answer to a complex question.
  • TheMachine1, on 08/24/2008, -0/+14My dogs are absolutely opposed to wasting food.
  • guk6kk, on 08/24/2008, -1/+7We don't only waste food, but we also pay agricultural firms to not produce food by subsidizing them.
    • lajaw, on 08/24/2008, -1/+1And we also pay landowners to take farmland and plant pine trees on it.
  • toetagger, on 08/24/2008, -2/+5"According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 25,000 people died of starvation every day in 2003." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation
    • BrainInAJar, on 08/24/2008, -4/+3then they should quit ***** themselves to overpopulation and maybe there wouldn't be a problem, no?
    • lajaw, on 08/24/2008, -2/+125,000 x 365 = 9,125,000

      9 million people starving to death each year? B.S.

      We should compost those folks and use it for fertilizer. Then we could feed those 9 million that are starving.
    • toytoyota, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2It's not B.S. buddy it's real.
  • thrillki1l, on 08/24/2008, -2/+4Stop burying questions about whats the big deal about using a lot of water. IT'S A SERIOUS QUESTION!!!. I honestly don't know why wasting water is a big deal. the earth is a third water.
    • overshoot, on 08/24/2008, -0/+7I'm not sure where you got the one-third number from.
      About three percent of all water is freshwater. Desalinizing the rest is expensive, so it is of little use.

      And of course in some places people dump their crap in other people's water supplies, making it unsafe to drink.

      If ways can be found to use less water it's a good thing.
      • thrillki1l, on 08/25/2008, -0/+1sorry your right. I screwed up and wrote a third instead of 2/3
    • TheMachine1, on 08/24/2008, -3/+1I never understood the concern for water shortages either. Its a renewable resource. If we do not use it or if we use it its mostly going to evaporate or flow to the ocean anyway.

      Like most environmental issue too many things get jumbled together and equated. Like this story title is on food waste why is water waste in the article to?

      My guess the notion of water shortage/ waste has entered the mind set of environmentalist as a direct result of water being diverted to desert regions like South West US. Its generally a limited resources there. People who do not live in a desert naturally do not see a water shortage.

      It still make since to save water for the simple fact you have to pay for it.

      • lajaw, on 08/24/2008, -0/+1Agreed, I got 5 1/2 inches of rain yesterday from Fay. No shortage here today.
    • anotherjack, on 08/24/2008, -0/+4It's good that you kept asking. "There are no stupid questions" means that its really good to ask when you don't know. People assumed you were either trolling or not researching before asking. You can look up "water crisis" on the digital interweb by typing it into google, wikipedia, etc. I put my own answer to this question in your first post, above.
      • lajaw, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2You have to clarify what is causing the crisis. It about potable water, not just water. Our biggest concern is the lack of usable, fresh water. But now, they are using seawater for fertilizer in some areas. It seems that sea water contains many micro minerals that are not available otherwise. The "salt" in sea water is not all NaCl.
  • GovernmentsGun, on 08/24/2008, -2/+3Beyond the food that is produced, and governments pay the farmers to just let it rot in the silos and fields, I would tend to doubt this statistic.

    Oh, I have a solution - lets institute a massive worldwide government organized program to distribute only what people need to them, and nobody will starve! And we'll have the same people run it that run the IRS, Post Office and the DMV!
  • IG64, on 08/24/2008, -0/+12I used to work at Wal-Mart in food stocking. An unsettling amount of food is thrown away nightly due to small things. For example, if one tub of yogurt falls out of a package of 12, the whole thing is thrown away.
    • Rotzooi, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2Huh? Why?
      • IG64, on 08/24/2008, -0/+4Usually it's due to bad packaging. Some of those yogurt cartons are really flimsy, so if they're torn at all they won't hold the containers anymore, and no one would buy it. That's just one example though; the point is, I saw a lot of perfectly good food get thrown out.
      • lajaw, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2That' because wally world has no process for selling damaged goods. Dent and bent stores fill that void. The consumer in this country is mighty picky.
  • liquisoft, on 08/24/2008, -0/+4I thought we were supposed to eat less, because we're so fat.
    • newms32, on 08/24/2008, -3/+0Those Zionist researchers are always flip-flopping at the people's expense.
  • welliwonder, on 08/24/2008, -4/+1I'm going to make an artistic statement. I'm going to buy a good thick T-Bone, place it on the ground near the store entrance and take a nice ***** on it.
    Turd steak.
  • anotherjack, on 08/24/2008, -0/+10Sorry, I don't want to be told to clean my goddamn plate. I try to order less, but they wont let me get the "senior" or "kiddie" meal. If I order just one egg, the fry cook assumes I am poor and gives me 3. Which is sweet but kind of defeats my point. I can't eat like an American, but I have no choice but to order like one.
    • TekTrixter, on 08/24/2008, -0/+3I have solved that problem by getting a to-go container and saving the half I don't eat then to eat for my next meal. Only works if you have access to a refrigerator though...
      • lajaw, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2Or better yet, unless traveling, cook and eat at home. Even while traveling, carry a cooler and eat out of it.
  • anotherjack, on 08/24/2008, -1/+2Often I don't consider it wasted. On a sanitary level, it is good that food is tossed the moment it goes bad, stale, or fugly. We have enough cases of salmonella in this country. Let's not recycle the potato salad. What are restaurants supposed to do? Force the leftovers on the last 3 patrons of the day? Food services need to keep more on hand than is sold on a typical day. Patrons don't come back when you say "yeah, we ran out of eggs, salad, and burgers..oh and no coffee."
  • BlakkSheep, on 08/24/2008, -0/+8The other half turns to poo.
  • hiPpymIck, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2save food at home site
    http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
  • slightlygifted, on 08/24/2008, -3/+6yes lets send all our food to africa so they can all have 8 more starving kids themselves.
  • macsken, on 08/24/2008, -0/+11/2 wasted
    1/2 eaten but 50% humans is too FAT = we only need 1/4 ? So no biomass nedded for driving my car. Nice
  • electrifried, on 08/24/2008, -0/+5i work in a 'cafe' and my boss forces us to chuck out all the food at the end of the day - which is about 10kg worth of potatoes, quiche and chips. And pasta. he doesnt let us eat anything, even if were closed. -.-
    • anotherjack, on 08/24/2008, -0/+1By putting something in the "garbage" the person has given up all legal rights to it. You cannot legally be considered stealing if its already thrown away, so "throw it away" in a clean container and take it home. Also, I hope your Boss steps on a rake and you are there to see it.
  • glutamate, on 08/24/2008, -0/+8Saying that wasting food is a problem because there are people starving is like saying that heat wasted though a lack of home insulation is a problem because people die of hypothermia.

    You might as well whine about how bathing is a waste of water when there are people on the planet who are dying of thirst.
    • m85476585, on 08/24/2008, -0/+1The problem is that heat and water are basically produced locally, but food is produced globally. Let's say a third-world country is able to produce a fixed amount of rice (limited by arable land, water, etc). If America buys half that rice, there will be less rice available to people in that country, which will force prices up. Many people in developing countries will not be able to afford the now more expensive rice, so they might starve. If we (America) didn't throw out half our food, we might only need to buy 1/4 of the rice produced in the same country, leaving more for them.
  • cambob76, on 08/24/2008, -0/+3It's the same people who are stealing Mayor West's water!
  • gubatron2, on 08/24/2008, -0/+1seems like a money making opportunity, that's a lot of money wasted
  • HelluvaRedHead, on 08/24/2008, -0/+1Interesting how the majority of comments are quite flippant on here huh? Throughout human history food & water have been wasted. News like this should be reported, but trying to SOLVE this issue is never really addressed. Honestly - do YOU care about the starving people living in your country? How about across the globe? Probably some of you, but most are just looking to get one of their 'cute quips' on DiggReel (like this item would even be spotlighted on it).Global starvation will always be with us. Over-consuming will always be with us & wastefulness too.
    • wattersm, on 08/24/2008, -0/+2I don't even care about the ones in my own country, in the same state maybe but even then it's a non-issue for me, the only people I truly care about are my kids and a few of my close friends.
    • Logrusmage, on 08/24/2008, -0/+0Thank you. This is a by-product of CAPITALISM. Capitalism = good. Remove trade barriers and things will eventually (that's a key word) begin to even out (too a point).
  • wattersm, on 08/24/2008, -0/+1Really if you think about it nothing is wasted, food either turns to compost or methane in the land fill, either way it's recyclable.
  • cfuse, on 08/24/2008, -0/+1What an unkind way to refer to Americans.
  • controlmonkey, on 08/25/2008, -0/+0To imply that global rationing of calories will end world hunger is insulting to the monkey's intelligence. The monkey is not impressed.
  • madowhat, on 08/27/2008, -0/+0that means there is a lot of room for improvement. things like this reassure me that my education will not be wasted. otherwise it is hard to find a meaning in today's overly burdened college education system
  • donna1234, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1Tremendous quantities of food are wasted after production
    http://www.recipesblog.net/
    http://www.foodencyclopedia.info/
    http://www.e-uuu.com
    http://www.gogetfit.net/
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.