The End

            Before delving into the issue of food waste, I worried little about what filled my trash can.  Sure, I knew that Styrofoam is terrible because it isn’t biodegradable. Sure, I tried to always recycle my milk cartons and newspapers. But I thought nothing of that leftover dinner or those vegetable trimmings. I unconsciously believed that when the garbage truck came beeping down the dark morning streets, these food scraps would be taken to some faraway landfill where they would harmlessly decompose and return to the soil. That is how nature works, right? Well, that is how it’s supposed to work. Nowadays, “the simple principle of recycling waste back into nature becomes a heroic task,” according to Tim Lang, professor of Food Policy at City University London.  Indeed, landfills are not as innocent as I thought. Evidence shows that they account for 17% of all methane emissions in the United States, and most of this methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, is produced by the anaerobic decomposition of food (Gunders 14). Needless to say, I am horrified. Though I did laugh at the idea that “in a nation with robotic vacuums and phones that can give us directions, we’re essentially using a Stone Age solution – digging a hole in the ground and dumping stuff in it – to handle our waste” (Jonathan Bloom 18). In addition to landfills, my increased awareness about the magnitude of land, water, and energy we waste on uneaten food has the effect of making me feel uneasy when I look in my fridge.  I think of the success of modern-day agriculture in wealthy nations, and I think that alongside our fruitful fields we have grown blind, we have grown careless, we have grown spoiled. Even though “a country like America has twice as much food on its shop shelves and in its restaurants than is actually required to feed the American people,” nearly 15% of households were food insecure in 2012 (Stuart; Coleman-Jensen, Nord, and Singh 4). My research has convinced me that food waste is neither sustainable nor ethical. Most food waste activists and even historians will tell you that we no longer appreciate food in the way that our grandparents did. However, professor Lang reveals that it is not simply the consumers’ fault because the entire culture and business of food encourages waste.  He asked me and here I’m asking you: “Now, we need to ask how cheap is cheap?  If cheap food encourages unhealthy eating, and dumps costs on the environment and healthcare, is it cheap?” (Lang).