Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests

[gratuitous]

I wonder if we'd need Monsanto to save our food supply with its products if we were a little less picky about the food we grow now? Would people suffering from hunger just toss aside produce because it had a bruise or a blemish? Who makes the decision on what's left to rot and what ships to market?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/half-of-all-us-food-produce-is-thrown-away-new-research-suggests/ar-BBuhLjv?li=BBnb7Kz

Vast quantities of fresh produce grown in the US are left in the field to rot, fed to livestock or hauled directly from the field to landfill, because of unrealistic and unyielding cosmetic standards, according to official data and interviews with dozens of farmers, packers, truckers, researchers, campaigners and government officials.

[RKP5637]

1. I also heard this a long time ago, the vast amount of food wasted in the US. There was

also a story once about grocery stores throwing away produce contacted to help feed those needing food and insanely they were denied, the grocery chain, whoever it was, saying that would harm their sales if they gave away unwanted food rather than trashing it. It was a WTF to me then, as this is now.

[Warpy]

3. There are occasional stories on similar statistics all over western Europe

so we're not the only profligate wastrels on the planet.

We've got a very good food bank here and their gleaners have been great at getting moribund produce out of a lot of stores. What they can't use they give to soup kitchens. I guess they managed to convince Scrooge that people who have no money are not going to buy anything, ever, so you might as well donate it and take it off your taxes.

Home waste is different. Because our food shops are so centralized, we shop infrequently. That means some things will inevitably spoil before they're used. Places with decentralized food markets like stalls that open two or three times a week (if not every day) encourage frugality as people buy only what they'll need for two or three days and spoilage is cut to a minimum.

And that reminds me that I should take advantage of this nasty run of extremely hot weather by cleaning out all the failed science projects in my own fridge.

[citood]

4. Our local food bank skips the grocery store and gets food directly from the field

Its part of a large network, and they get anything from apples to onions from all over the country. They do have some of their own trucks, but primarily freight carriers donate the space. And the produce is usually the 'outcasts' from a sorting process - either too big or too small, etc...but once sorted into a pile, the producers seem happy enough to donate it, as it probably eases their disposal.

This network is out their right now, all over the country.

But intercepting wasted food at the grocery store level would be much more labor intensive.

[Warpy]

5. There are gardens down by the river that they might tap for produce

but this is the desert. It's arid, so arid that an open bag of chips stay crisp. There's not a hell of a lot that grows here except the best green chile in the world down in the southern part of the state.

Prospects are few for locovores and food banks, in other words.

[RKP5637]

6. I think I have a couple of those failed science projects in my fridge too!

[RKP5637]

2. K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[tableturner]

7. I used to own a supermarket.....

The problem is that the public will not buy produce that looks imperfect. Like it or not, that is the truth. Now that does not take away from the fact that a lot of imperfect looking, but healthy, product could be sent to homeless shelters and other charitable endeavors, which is what I did.

I did this not just with produce, but with perfectly healthy, but unsaleable, hot prepared foods that were leftover at the end of the night. Again....like it or not.....left over hot food will not look fresh the next day, and people will not buy it.

Put yourself in the shoes of a grocer: Your hot case has perfectly healthy food that is left over from yesterday, and it looks old (and quite honestly, while healthy, it will not taste as good as freshly prepared product). The store down the street has a hot case with perfect looking food that is freshly prepared. If you allow the old looking food to be put on display for sale, your customers will think your prepared foods section is lousy compared to the competition because it looks bad and tastes like yesterday's leftovers, which will cause them to shop elsewhere.

Honest question: How many of you will go to the store and buy tomatoes on display that are bruised, when the majority of the tomatoes displayed are nearly perfect looking?

I am just giving you the facts and I am not saying that wasting healthy food is a good thing.

[tallahasseedem]

8. I used to be so guilty of this...

Everything always looked good to me, so I would get it and it would end up spoiling by the time I got to it. My husband was very helpful with curbing that practice.