What Can We Do About Food Waste
This semester, you have read a great argument supporting the issue of “food waste” in America. You have also read about solutions that can at least make an impact in reducing food waste. You have gained further information on the reality of food waste solutions in various organizations and/or businesses by conducting an interview.
In this assignment, you will propose a solution to the issue of food waste.
You have to draft a proposal outlining your ideas/strategies as your final project
YOU are "King of the Forest!" You can make it happen! It may be a completely new idea or part of your evaluation and reflection from your interview. However, you will present it as an argument and persuade your audience (myself and fellow class members) that it is a logical solution that can realistically be implemented and will succeed in reducing food waste.
Your Topic = What can we do about “Food Waste?”
Your Sources = Interview, American Wasteland, website, & blog
Your primary resource must be an interview.
Decide on an area of interest (restaurant, grocery stores, local farm, school/college, church, non-profit organization).- No family members/ Local Only!
Arrange for a formal interview to meet with an employee/volunteer to figure out what the organization does with respect to food waste.
Analyze and evaluate the information presented by the interviewee.
Create ten questions to use as your interview guide.
Conduct a formal interview using your ten questions. (In-person, email, phone- NO TEXTING!!)
Script what was stated in the interview.
List some critical thinking questions that stemmed from further conversation during the interview.
Could you recognize any connections made with the efforts that Jonathon
Bloom discusses in American Wasteland?
What recommendations would you suggest to the interviewee to further their current implementations on food waste?
Use American Wasteland and your next resource.
You must also use a valid website.
You must use a relevant blog as your sources. You may use any other sources you want. For example, books, magazines, library database articles, etc. Please note that Wikipedia is not an acceptable source.
Presentation Format = You can write up a report or create a Power Point, Prezi, Interactive Activity, Video or Brochure in order to showcase and present your proposal
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
“What can we do about food waste?”
Food waste is one of the most common and complex issues that is being discussed in the various spheres of society today. Food waste involves the total edible parts of the plants and animals that are produced for consumption, but they end up going to waste as they are not consumed by humans. However, it should be noted that there is no exact definition of food waste, but the food agriculture organization provided the commonly used definition. It was concluded that food waste is when the edible materials produced for human consumption are instead lost, destroyed or degraded, or eaten by the pests (Wajon and Richter 7). It can also refer to the loss of food at the different stages of the food supply chain. Some of these stages include the harvest, post-harvest, storage, processing, distribution, and then consumption. In all the above stages, food tends to be wasted. It should be noted that food waste involves the loss of food that was produced for human consumption but is then redirected to other uses such as bioenergy or feeding animals (Kennard 1). The extent to which people keep on wasting food has increased globally, and therefore, there is a need for a solution that can be used to reduce the wastage of food due to the various adverse effects involved.
It is important to understand how community members are participating in the efforts to address food wastage. Effective measures by consumers will have a significant impact on the food wastage problem. Therefore, individual efforts may appear negligible to the whole problem, but the combined effects may have a profound positive impact on the problem. The interview targets community members as they form part of the consumer group. The interviewee will be selected randomly from the streets and asked 10 questions which will be used as the basis for the solution of food wastage. The various responses by the interviewee will be researched further for their reliability and credibility, before being adopted as solutions for the food waste problem.
The interviewee believed that the food wastage problem keeps increasing despite the various efforts and programs in place. On the global scale, food wastage keeps rising and it is reached an extent where about 2.6 trillion dollars are lost as a result of food waste. More than 1.3 billion tons of bio-waste are collected due to an estimated one-third of food being wasted along the different stages of the supply chain. In Europe alone, the estimated amount of food that is believed to have been wasted in 2006 alone reached about 89 million tons, which is about 179 kg per capita. Around the world, the increased amount of food waste is expected in the developed countries, especially the European countries such as America, where the consumers are unconscious, and keep wasting food without any significant reasons (Kunszabo, Szakos, and Kasza 14). On the other hand, in developing countries where there are no modern ways of preserving the food for future consumption, poor infrastructures and lack better farming methods to preserve the food or prevent it from being eaten by pests, food wastage is minimal. There are different forms of food waste, including household waste, which contributes to the most significant percentage of the food wasted worldwide. The other form is the food processing food waste, the food production, and food service wastes, as well as the wholesale and retail wastes. The most discarded food is meals, and these contribute up to 40 percent of the food waste, followed by bakery products that contribute up to 20 percent of food waste. Other categories of food waste include fresh fruits and vegetables and these contribute a ratio of 17 percent to the food waste and many other kinds of foods such as dairy products and soft drinks. Food wastage differs from one country to another, and studies have concluded that this is linked to the relationship between a nation’s demographic characteristics and wasteful behavior (Kunszabo, Szakos, and Kasza 14-15).
Before focusing on developing the solution to food waste, it is significant to focus on the various effects of food waste. Despite the costs involved, as identified earlier, the food wastes cause the world to make a loss of about 2.6 trillion dollars, which shows the economic impact that the food waste has on the population. There are several other adverse effects associated with food waste. Food waste affects the environment in several ways; that is when the food is collected and disposed of in the landfills, and it tends to release the polluting gases and metals that are left in the soil or expend into the atmosphere, thus affecting the environment. It should be noted that food waste contributes about 8 percent of the global greenhouse gases that tend to affect and play a key role in climatic changes. Also, the food wastes are released into the water bodies, affecting the animals that live in the water bodies. It should be noted that even though the food wastes tend to decompose, but they release dangerous gases and metals that tend to stay in the environment for an extended period of time (Lins, Zandonadi, Raposo, and Ginani). It is important to note that socially, the food that is wasted can be used to feed part of the people who do not have food. Many people worldwide spend days without food, yet food in other countries is being wasted, which is not good. In other words, this can mean that the more the food is wasted, the more people who cannot afford food go without food (Lins, Zandonadi, Raposo, and Ginani).
According to the interviewee, the zero waste approach is the best solution to experiencing a significant impact on the food wastage problem. The solution can be adopted worldwide for better outcomes. The Zero waste approach follows five steps or deploys five strategies that can help with the reduction of food wastage or completely put it to an end. The first strategy is identified as rejection, and here is when one learns to say ‘No’ to the items they believe they would not consume (Seberini 6-7). People should be taught how to refuse the food products offered to them freely by companies, yet they are not going to consume them as these would be kept for future use or to help feed the part of the population that cannot afford the items. The second step is the reduction...