Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
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Re: Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
#2Waste like this is basically a symptom of an inefficient logistics network and market conditions.
The fresh fruit you see at the grocery store all "made the cut" what didn't make the cut became canned tomatos, apple concentrate, frozen hash browns and other more processed fruits. Nobody cares if a canned tomato looks lumpy.
The problem is that the opportunities to redirect produce that doesn't pass QC are basically nonexistent after a pretty early part of the supply chain. Supply chain logistics are a mostly solved problem. This won't be fixed until the benefit outweighs the cost. The cost will most likely have to decrease for that to happen. A complicating factor is that produce optimized for one track (e.g. fresh apples) might perform more poorly if repurposed after failing QC (e.g applesauce) so in some situations it makes more sense to just discard stuff that doesn't pass QC late in the supply chain than to redirect it into role it's not optimized for.
If it was more profitable to redirect stuff that doesn't pass QC then people would do it. Many restaurants already dispose of food waste separately and give it to pig farms. Pig farmer reduces feed cost and the restaurant reduces disposal costs.
Re: Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
#3"The demand for ‘perfect’ fruit and veg means much is discarded, damaging the climate and leaving people hungry"
I mean, you can make a case for damaging the environment, but the thrown away food is hardly the reason people are hungry. We clearly don't have a shortage problem.
Re: Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
#4Waste like this is basically a symptom of an inefficient logistics network and market conditions. The fresh fruit you see at the grocery store all "made the cut" what didn't make the cut became canned tomatos, apple concentrate, frozen hash browns and other more processed fruits. Nobody cares if a canned tomato looks lumpy. The problem is that the opportunities to redirect produce that doesn't pass QC are basically n…
> A complicating factor is that produce optimized for one track (e.g. fresh apples) might perform more poorly if repurposed
What optimisations do you have in mind?
Re: Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
#5Food production should not be subsidized, and environmental negative externalities forced into prices, via taxes eg. (Ys, this would have to be compensated with more income transfers for the poor)
Re: Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
#6Waste like this is basically a symptom of an inefficient logistics network and market conditions. The fresh fruit you see at the grocery store all "made the cut" what didn't make the cut became canned tomatos, apple concentrate, frozen hash browns and other more processed fruits. Nobody cares if a canned tomato looks lumpy. The problem is that the opportunities to redirect produce that doesn't pass QC are basically n…
> A complicating factor is that produce optimized for one track (e.g. fresh apples) might perform more poorly if repurposed What optimisations do you have in mind?
An apple bred to stay crisp for a long time on the shelf and give a nice crunch when you eat it might not make the best applesauce.
Re: Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
#7"The demand for ‘perfect’ fruit and veg means much is discarded, damaging the climate and leaving people hungry" I mean, you can make a case for damaging the environment, but the thrown away food is hardly the reason people are hungry. We clearly don't have a shortage problem.
I agree there's not a shortage problem. We are who definitely need to change our mentality. As an individual customers, not wanting only the pretty and shiny ones. As a company, by not wanting only max profit disregarding environment harm. Considering that this may never happen, it would be good if there would be no logistic issues/transportation costs (maybe subsidized by the government?) in order to ship this perfect fruit to the hungry.
Once I did and experiment, here in the UK. I bought a bag of apples from Aldi (non organic ones, but not sure if this makes any difference) and stored one on top of the refrigerator. Six months were passed and it was still looking pretty and shiny. That scared my ass off.
Re: Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
#8Food production should not be subsidized, and environmental negative externalities forced into prices, via taxes eg. (Ys, this would have to be compensated with more income transfers for the poor)
For sure this could be a solution. Unfortunately I see no way of this to happen.
Re: Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
#9"I would say at times there is 25% of the crop that is just thrown away or fed to cattle" One of these is waste, one not. Perhaps their definition of waste needs to be reviewed.
Re: Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests
#10"I would say at times there is 25% of the crop that is just thrown away or fed to cattle" One of these is waste, one not. Perhaps their definition of waste needs to be reviewed.
Yes feeding cattle excess (over demand) crops could be called recycling for instance. Get something of value out of it instead of e.g. burning it.