Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by deadmik3 » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:14 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #17

talmand wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand it's more of a delivery or logistics problem and its variations. Sometimes it's not worth it to certain people to deliver the food and in some cases someone takes the food before it arrives.

These days it's mostly an economic thing. Food's there but some people don't have money to buy it. http://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-fac...

That link (at least, the section you linked because I didn't read the entire page) doesn't say anything about it being economic, it just gives the numbers and even goes to show that we've apparently been making progress in reducing world hunger.

Also, it's kind of a good thing for economic causes to be producing excess. The other option is to be under-producing (because 100% efficiency is a pretty hard target to hit, you're either going to be over or under). If this was the case, it would drive food prices up. So even though there would be no waste, there would be even more want.

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

#22

Post by sandworm101 » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:16 PM UTC

>> 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,

Only one of those I would call "thrown away". Left in the field to "rot" is a form of fertilizer. Being fed to livestock, animals that would otherwise eat something else, equally isn't waste. These are products being put to good uses, perhaps not the most lucrative uses for which they were designed, but uses nonetheless. This is farmers recycling unmarketable product. It isn't waste.

Only when product winds up as landfill, that is waste.

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

#23

Post by cprayingmantis » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:19 PM UTC

I would say 10%-15% is lost to insurance fraud. A lot of times when the crop yield is less than 50% of expected yield farmers will just disc the fields and claim 100% loss.

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

#24

Post by hx87 » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:19 PM UTC

awalton wrote: post #20

vmateixeira wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 perfe…

As much as we want to blame individual consumers, a lot of this problem goes back to Big Box Retailers. In many, many places there simply isn't a choice - you go to one of either Walmart or Kroger or Safeway to get food, because that's the only market in 20 miles from your home. Because these places put such a high demand on perfect produce, they can charge more for that produce, and Americans find it harder and hard…

> I've been told again and again that there's some evidence us consumers have to be looked out for and have perfect, pristine produce

> out here in Mountain View

It looks like you and your community are ahead of the curve on this one. You're also less than 200 miles from some of the best agricultural land in the world, so of course good fresh fruit and vegetables are easy to get. In the northeast during winter, the choice is between mushy, bland big box produce or no produce at all.

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

#25

Post by maxerickson » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:24 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #18

mkane848 wrote: post #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.

I'm not sure discarding in the field damages the climate much either. It's what plants normally do - grow and then decay where they are.

Between the fertilizer, fuel and pesticides used in modern agricultural practice there is some difference with a native plant dropping seeds.

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

#26

Post by kbart » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:29 PM UTC

vmateixeira wrote: post #19

kbart wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Six months were passed and it was still looking pretty and shiny." Given the right conditions, it's not a problem for apples to stay fresh for a long time. We usually keep apples, grown in our own garden without any "chemicals", through the winter in a cellar or attic. Not sure if it work for all kinds of apples though.

I wasn't aware of this. Are those natural or GMO? Actually tried to look up the average 'expiry' date for an apple and could only find industrial storage dates with what 'experts' call MAP storage [1]. [1] http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/how-long-will-apples-last...

Natural, we did plant them ourselves. I haven't tried to keep them afresh myself, my father is taking care of this. However, after quick googling I've found that it works only for some kinds of apples and the are certain tricks to keep them fresh for a long time.

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

#27

Post by jerf » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:30 PM UTC

deadmik3 wrote: post #21

tim333 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days it's mostly an economic thing. Food's there but some people don't have money to buy it. http://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-fac...

That link (at least, the section you linked because I didn't read the entire page) doesn't say anything about it being economic, it just gives the numbers and even goes to show that we've apparently been making progress in reducing world hunger. Also, it's kind of a good thing for economic causes to be producing excess. The other option is to be under-producing (because 100% efficiency is a pretty hard target to hit,…

While I'm generally libertarian and I don't like our current regime, I'm in favor of some modest government subsidies on food, especially food that is easy to store. The subsidies should take the form of the government buying and storing the food, and cycling out the middling-old food cheaply to those in need to keep the system moving. (This is not 'taking advantage' of those in need, because I'm explicitly spec'ing out foods that store well and aren't bad just because they're a bit older.) Because capitalism is remarkably efficient, which is just fine, until you plan for about 101% of the food you need this year and some unanticipated massive disaster happens.

(Note that there is a such thing as an "anticipated" disaster. Capitalism does in fact plan for some slack in the system, through insurance, futures trading, and other mechanisms, which is why we don't starve every single time there's a minor drought. But it'll only plan for so many sigmas out from normal, whereas Mother Nature is not so polite.)

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

#28

Post by vmateixeira » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:46 PM UTC

awalton wrote: post #20

vmateixeira wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 perfe…

As much as we want to blame individual consumers, a lot of this problem goes back to Big Box Retailers. In many, many places there simply isn't a choice - you go to one of either Walmart or Kroger or Safeway to get food, because that's the only market in 20 miles from your home. Because these places put such a high demand on perfect produce, they can charge more for that produce, and Americans find it harder and hard…

> Big Box Retailers have overconsolidated markets so much that there's no venue to sell this "less-than-perfect" produce to people

I disagree because we, the individual consumer, are the ones who buys, therefore we may have the power to make this to change to some extent, and I see what you do as an example of that. If people would buy more from local producers it's expected for the Big Box retailers to see their revenues drop. At that point they'll need to make a change.

> It can be quite difficult justifying the price tag on that bag of apples when you're not sure you can get through the whole bag, and two individual apples will end up costing you just as much as the bag because they carry the bullshit "organic" label

This may be another key issue. Do we really need to buy a whole bag of apples, just because we see it as a bargain, even if we end up throwing half of it away?

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

#29

Post by vmateixeira » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:50 PM UTC

kbart wrote: post #26

vmateixeira wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't aware of this. Are those natural or GMO? Actually tried to look up the average 'expiry' date for an apple and could only find industrial storage dates with what 'experts' call MAP storage [1]. [1] http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/how-long-will-apples-last...

Natural, we did plant them ourselves. I haven't tried to keep them afresh myself, my father is taking care of this. However, after quick googling I've found that it works only for some kinds of apples and the are certain tricks to keep them fresh for a long time.

That's really great, congratulations! Sometimes I wish I could have my own bit of land to grow my own food!

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

#30

Post by sp332 » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:54 PM UTC

Bromskloss wrote: post #12

sp332 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh. I'm surprised that the difference is considered to be that great.

Soft, sweet apples are better for pies. Maybe throw in a couple of crisp, tart ones for texture and flavor, but you probably wouldn't want to eat a pie with nothing but Granny Smiths.