English Assignment (paper)

Introduction

A close to one-third of the produced food in the world finds itself wasted or lost. In the United States alone, the country spends close to $218 billion on food that is not eaten by anybody. This figure amounts to 40% of the total food grown in the country. The issue of food waste continues to create an alarm amid other issues in the economy of the world. More problems arise in the environment when food produced finds itself in litter bins and finally in the environment thus polluting the air, land, and water too. The depth of food waste needs a thorough consideration since it is a problem which affects the well-being of the society and future generation (Gunders, 2012). With such devastating effects brought up by food wastage, debates are being raised on what causes this problem, the solutions that can be embraced to solve the problem as well as a comparison of production and the usage of the food.   

Causes of food waste and solutions

Causes

Food waste is a problem creates a scenario where there is an imbalance between supply or production and demand; the consumers of the food. Whereas food loss is caused by factors such as national calamities, insufficient skills, and poor practices, food waste results from intentionally discarding edible food. According to (Dana, 2015), food waste is further contributed by failure to store food using proper measures to avoid expiring and also lack of people planning meals properly. From a report by Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations in 2013, the situation arises due to retailers rejecting most of the food since it fails to conform to their aesthetic standards or quality (FAO, 2014).

Preparation and purchase of excess food is also another cause of food waste in the world. In a situation where one prepares food in large quantities than required, it is obvious that the excess food in the household ends up going waste. In such circumstances, the leftovers account to the foods categorized as food waste (Parfitt, Barthel and McNaughton, 2010). Similarly, errors that arise from industrial processing as well as adhering to food safety policies also cause food wastage. Any slight error or confusion on the safety of foods would always diminish the quality of food hence very strict protocols on the safety of food is a mandatory failure to which leads to food waste (Mirabella, Castellani & Sala, 2016). Government agencies will always consider any food that does not meet the required set standards as wasted food hence it is disposed of. Last but not least, financial, technical and managerial constraints in different developing countries lead to food waste, for instance, poor infrastructure and technological know-how in the line of food production.

Solutions to food waste

To do away with the devastating behavior of food waste, one important way is through education of the public. People need to be educated through awareness that prevention of food waste saves a lot of money which can be directed towards other constructive activities (Goldenberg & Suzanne, 2016). Perhaps balancing demand with production is the best way to tackle the issue of food waste, changes in production process could help save natural resources used to manufacture food which in turn end up as food which is not needed at all.

In addition, investing in better processes of harvesting, processing, storing and distribution also works well. Wasted food can be saved when measures such as redistribution are considered in order to divert the excess food to people who have got no food instead. According to United Nations, there is an anticipation of an increase in food production by the year 2050 in order to meet increasing population of the world (William et al, 2012). By putting up measures to correct food loss and wastage, the increase of production will be less only food wastage is reduced.

Furthermore, consumers tracing back to identify where food wastage occurs can also be a solution to food loss. Different consumers should come up with a meal plan to save extra food that finds itself in dining tables ending up unattended due to various reason. Many people find food cheaper hence deciding to buy it in bulk only to realize that they do not save any money when it is dumped in the litter bin.   Recycling is also one major solution to food waste by finding other ways to use wasted food (Mourad, 2016). The wasted food can be fed to animals to save resources that would have been used in producing commercial feeds.

Balance of food production and consumption

Food waste has been said to be linked to lack of proper knowledge that can be implemented to generate an equilibrium model. The lack of information on food waste has been highly associated with data that is derived from related environmental effects and food wastage volumes leaving behind the economic context (Johnson & Nathanael, 2016). I believe necessary steps are skipped in the quest of maintaining a balanced food production and usage. The supply chain is one skewed area where there is an imbalance in various inputs. The government should be unbiased in that by allocating a certain amount of capital on production, it should also do so to facilities such as refrigeration, electricity, and storage.

I believe with necessary inputs allocated equally food waste would be minimal bearing in mind that this problem is based on supply and demand characteristics. With proper information on inputs required during production, the resulting total amounts of food commodities together with price (Webber, 2014). With provision with full information bearing in mind that there are no any external costs, food waste can be controlled based on market equilibrium (Smil, 2004). With lack of information and a non-ideal situation, changes to factors such as scarcities and prices present a scenario where food waste continues to thrive despite many people going without food for lack of affording to buy yet foods are wasted a lot.

The government has a big role to play on the impacts that food waste has on the society as well as the environment as a whole. Good decision-making is important in mitigating the risk by securing resource use in a sustainable manner. As a government role in ensuring that its citizens are well planned for in their statistics, incorporation of food production, preparation and distribution should be given priority to rule out a case of imbalance in food consumption while many people are dying of lack of food (Silva et al, 2017). Food waste has caused a lot of impact on the environmental biodiversity with so much waste disposed of. Increase in food prices has been attributed to improper handling of food rendering it useless hence the loss is added to prices of other commodities, an observation that increases the standards of living and hence poverty in the long run.   

Work Cited

Dana (2015). The environmental Impact of Food Waste. http://www.moveforhunger.org/the-environmental-impact-of-food-waste/

Dana Gunders, (2012). Wasted: How America is losing up to 40 percent of its Food from Farm to Fork to Land. Natural Resources Defense Council. https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf

Food and Agricultural Organization, (2014). Food wastage accounting: Full-cost Accounting. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3991e.pdf

Garcia Silva et al. (2017). A public-private partnership to mitigate food insecurity and food waste in Orange County, California. The American Journal of Public Health. Pp. 105

Goldenberg & Suzanne, (2016). Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests. The Guardian News. www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/13/us-food-waste-ugly-fruit-vegetables-perfect.

Johnson, Nathanael, (2016). “Here’s a realistic plan to slash food waste.” , grist.org/article/heres-a-realistic-plan-to-slash-food-waste/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.

Mirabella, N., Castellani, V., & Sala, S. (2014). Current options for the valorization of food manufacturing waste: A review, Journal of Cleaner Production, 28-41.

Mourad, M. (2016). Recycling, recovering and preventing "food waste": Competing solutions for food systems sustainability in the United States and France. Journal of Cleaner Production, 461–477.

Parfitt, J., Barthel, M., & Macnaughton, S. (2010)., Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050, in Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society. Biological Sciences, 3065-81

Smil, V. (2004). Improving efficiency and reducing waste in our food system. Environmental Sciences, 17-26.

Webber, M. (2012). How to Make the Food System more energy efficient. Scientific American.

William, A. et. al (2012). Reasons for household food waste with special attention to packaging. Journal of Cleaner Production. Pp. 141-148.