America's food crisis

How is this happening? A recent government study estimated that Americans waste an astounding 27% of the food available for consumption.

The Department of Agriculture estimated that recovering just 5% of the food that is wasted could feed 4 million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people.

Eat and buy consciously.

I'm started cooking bigger meals and giving my leftovers to friends and family. It's just as easy to make a big pot of chili than a 2 person portion, so why not?

Vegetarianism is the solution.

Funny, people didn't starve in America during WWII, and that was a global war. What's going wrong, Bush? Oh, that's right, you were elected to serve, "You the Rich and Well-Off" not "We the People", right? Your foul legacy and that of your party will forever be writ in the annals of history as one big FAIL. I think this is the time where you break out the fiddle and start playing, Bush, as America burns.

The part of the story here that hurts the most really is the kids hanging onto their free and reduced lunches so they'll have something to eat at night.

Because ... what will they do over the summer? :-(

This is really real, and it's going to get worse. Industrial agriculture methods can no longer produce the high yields they once did because we have exhausted the soil.

Vegetarianism would help a lot, but actually reducing meat consumption is a better way. Local agriculture that preserves the integrity of the land it is grown on will help a lot too.

But that waste issue, that's insult on top of injury. Americans waste more stuff than the rest of the world combined. What are we thinking, seriously?

My bet is that the people who waste the most are probably the same ones who are ignorant enough to think food actually comes from the grocery store...

WAKE UP.

Does anyone have any tips for growing your own food? That seems to be a pretty reasonable place to start, even if you're only producing a small amount. Obviously stopping wasting food is another easy place to start. I think the reason there is so much waste is because people want variety. Instead of making on thing that will last a week, like Elligirl said, you've got six or seven pieces of tupperwear holding leftovers. But because people want variety, even the leftovers probably won't be eaten... we need to eat to live, not live to eat.

Once the dollar menu goes away then everyone will feel the reality of the food crisis.

Vegetarianism and scientific advances in agricultural technologies like genetic modification can help to bring more food to more people using less resources.

We as humans need to be more conservative with our eating habits. Us as Americans need to stop being such heavy consumers, eat lesser quantitys, and save what you dont eat more wisely. If we continue this trend of being wasteful creatures out future generations are going to be left with nothing.

I CAN'T PARTICULARLY TELL YOU WHY THIS IS HAPPENING--THE FOOD CRISIS AND ALL--BUT WE ARE SELFISH HUMAN BEINGS. SPOILED AS HECK TOO. AND YEAH I SAID IT AMERICANS ARE A VERY SELFISH PEOPLE. WE SPEND SO MUCH MONEY THINGS THAT WE DON'T REALLY NEED IT'S REDICULOUS. EVEN I CAN ATTEST TO PUTTING MY DOLLARS INTO THE WRONG PLACES WITHIN MY LIFETIME. YOU'D THINK THAT AMERICA IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE RICHEST CONTINENT ECONOMICALLY. BUT AS I PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEWS AS OF LATE, CHINA IS COMING UP ON US VERY FAST. WHY BECAUSE WE ARE SO SELFISH. IT'S ALL ABOUT I, AND NOT WE. THE TALK IS ABOUT OBESITY, WHO IN AFRICA IS BITCHING AND MOANING ABOUT OBESITY? AND TO TOP THAT AFRICA WITH ALL OF ITS DIAMOND MINES, GOLD COAL, LIVESTOCK--OR WHAT LITTLE LIVESTOCK THEY HAVE, AND THEY'VE BEEN COLONIZED TO ALMOST NOTHING. SELFISHNESS! BUT HOWEVER WITH THIS ECONOMY, AND PEOPLE GETTING LAID OFF LEFT AND RIGHT I DO NOT KNOW REALLY. BASICALLY IT ALL COMES DOWN TO DOLLARS AND SENSE. AND WHEN THE DOLLARS AREN'T SPENT RIGHT, WELL WHO REALLY CAN YOU BLAME, OURSELVES.

I QUOTE: KANYE WEST....WE'RE ALL SELF CONSCIOUS, I'M JUST THE FIRST TO ADMIT IT.....

Yet we still spend a billion dollars on staying in that shithole called Iraq,turning so many of our countrys beautiful,hopeful young people into so much charred hamburger meat.Disgusting,and criminal.

If Americans ate smaller and more normal portions of food we could possibly have enough food to go around. There is no nutritional point to "Biggie Size" or "Super Size" portions.

Sara--check out Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a lovely inspiring book about a family that started growing their own food and eating locally for a year. Lots of great tips and a wonderful read.

Tough times are ahead for us all, and they will be hear soon. The economy is down turning and we must be prepared for the worst, whether it happens or not. We're going to need some help.

The people who are obese in this nation and the people in line at the food bank should hook up together. Being a vegan would help too.

Sara_Airey asked for tips to grow food:

Growing food is easy. Use local heirloom seeds that are adapt to your climate. I use organic soil, and plant-based organic fertilizer. I live in the city so I grow my food in containers on a patio and in the court yard. Water your plants when the soil gets dry, or plants start showing signs of fatigue. Water in the morning or in the evening.

Seeds are so cheap that if you make a mistake, it really doesn't matter. At least you tried. If you are successful, remember to save seeds in the fall to use next year.

Good Luck!

P.S. Plant now. I started most of my seeds indoor this winter, so you may want to buy established plants at this point.

I love how people keep saying that vegetarianism and veganism is the answer. I'm pro vegetarianism (although not one anymore myself) but people need to understand that the rest of America isn't going to catch on to that-- especially when 69 cent hamburgers still exist and most Americans don't know how to go vegetarian/vegan healthily in the first place.

I'm positive there's an increase in dumpster diving for food but,...is anyone keeping score on a national level?

A few points: Veganism is not the answer. No society in the history of the world has ever been vegan. It's not natural.

Genetically modified sees actually present a huge problem and are having increasingly negative consequences.

It's unfair to blame solely the US for this mess. What about the exploding populations of China and India? More people = more food.

Blaming the US consumer is easy, but the majority of the blame should be place on the aggro-industrial corporations. Here's a good lecture on it.
http://www.netnomad.com/ritchie.html

Thank you kati_kat and uroborus8 for the tips... I will certainly give it my best shot.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has more money than they know what to do with and certainly more than they have bothered to keep track of.

Being raised in a "dog eat dog" "every man for himself "capitalist country it will be nice and interesting to see towns and cities ban together for the sake of community.

Just a quick thought.

Have one huge shipment of food to a local food depot that everybody throws in on for shipping and food costs. No more want; more of need and health.

Cliche as it sounds, "United we stand, divided we fall."

I believe we can weather this storm while we make for clearer days.

p.s. It's cliche for a reason.

Huntre
Fascinating lecture that describes the history farm legislation. Thanks for the link.

Vegan may not be natural, but eating meat at every meal is not natural either. Moreover, the way that we raise animals, kill them, and process and distribute meat in our mass production systems is not natural either.

Sara, growing your own food sounds great and I support and encourage it. But it can only go so far in supplying your food needs. So, I'd also encourage you (and others) to look into joining a community supported agriculture group or at least shop local farmers markets as much as you can.

dgdold0101, you are wrong. There are cultures that are vegetarian. Much of Hindu India is vegetarian. Many Buddhists are vegetarian. Both use a religious argument for vegetarianism. They believe in reincarnation and do not want to eat their loved ones. They essentially equate eating meat to cannibalism.

Without a doubt, but I said no culture has ever been Vegan.

uroborus88. Hindus and Buddhists are not vegetarian because they don't want to eat their loved ones. I don't know where you got this idea, but it is completely incorrect.

They do not eat meat because of the inherent violence involved in killing an animal, and eating an animal that has been killed in fear means you are eating that fear and violence.

Additionally, people can be reincarnated as plants, so your statement wouldn't make sense in that sense either.

Also, Buddhists believe in rebirth and not recincarnation, but I won't go into details with that.

It is also not "natural" to eat the manufactured food that humans have invented such as just about and and all food things from any fast food chains, soda, partially hydrogenated oils (Which are in just about everything on the shelf). etc.

This reminds me of:

"Soylent green is PEOPLE!"

We could so be headed towards that glorious future. People love to blame someone else for the problems that occur instead of putting forth effort to make a change. All these people blaming Bush what have you done to make this problem go away?

Food is important and this problem needs to be fixed along with other problems. I always thought America should just quit helping the whinny world and stick to helping and fixing up America. Period.

You cannot be of use if you yourself are not up to snuff. America is falling apart from the inside and that's not good according to history.

Who's great idea was it to add ethanol to our fuel? Wasn't this tactic supposed to make our fuel cheaper and more efficient? Unfortunately, it has caused a food shortage because all of the farmers have turned their food producing farms into fuel producing farms. Just remember, we can't eat gas.

I guess none of the of these people have heard of freeganism.

You'd be amazed how much perfectly good, edible, clean food gets thrown away from restaurants and supermarkets.

I wouldn't be surprised, however, if most people decided to go without because of the negative connotations associated with "dumpster-diving".

@ dgold0101 "Veganism is not natural"

Last time I checked, drinking milk after infancy, especially the milk of another species, is far more unnatural than eating plants.

Well, maybe if Americans didn't rely on processed food and meat for every meal, we would realize we can eat for very inexpensive prices, even grow our own food.

Hunger could be lessened if resturants were able to give the food that they do not serve that night to the hungry. I work in a coffe shop and we sell sandwichs, but because of the health department codes we have to throw them in the garbage. It seems such a waste to me. I know that people are going hungry in this country and it is a shame that we, America, have homeless and hungry people in our mist and we still want to claim to be the richest country in the world.