Every day, American families throw out tons of spoiled food — or food they think is spoiled because they misunderstand “sell by” labels. Restaurants dispose of usable leftovers, and farmers toss imperfect produce.
In the United States, about 30 to 40 percent of all food is not eaten. About 95 percent of that wasted food, 38 million tons in 2014, ends up in landfills or incinerators, where it produces methane, a gas that is one of the most potent contributors to climate change.
To protect the environment, relieve hunger and save money, states are trying to reduce those numbers. California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont already restrict the amount of food and other organic waste (such as soiled and compostable paper and yard waste) that can be dumped in landfills. Maryland, New Jersey and New York are considering similar laws.
States are offering tax breaks to farmers and small businesses that donate food rather than throw it away, limiting the liability of food donors, and standardizing “use by” labels so consumers don’t toss food that is still edible.
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10 comments:
Companies need to stamp "use by" dates on all products and then maybe there wouldn't be so much waste. Mostly all I see is "sell by" dates.
Tomatoes are grown near me by the acres. Last year I witnessed tons of these spread on fields never to be consumed. That broke my heart thinking of all the hunger in the U.S.A.
Go pick them and delivere to poor people. That's what I do. Stop complaining and take action. If your to old pay someone. If the vegetables are rotten then move a starving person into your house. I've done it.
7:58 that's done purposely so they compost and enrich the fields. You see it with watermelons too.
Oh please. One of the biggest lines of BS is all the "hungry" people in the US. If anyone is hungry it is because THEY choose to be. Besides all of the government programs there are a plethora of non profits handing out free food. One of the local fraternal organizations handed out free turkeys one year in a low income area. Before they were done with a street these so called hungry people were trying to sell the turkeys for 5 or 10 dollars to passerbys in vehicles. They do the same with boxes of food they get at food pantries. You can buy a box for a fraction of it's worth from these so called hungry people. People need to wake out and see how it is in the REAL world and not the fantasy one they live in.
Oh, you mean like the fantasy City Hall here in Salisbury likes to pimp, 906? Pretty easy for you to tout about fantasy living when people on the Shore live in a bubble. You people don't even give a sh** about the elderly in your own community. You just la-de-da down the street thinking there's no life west of the Chesapeake Bay and then talk about other people living in fantasies? How hypocritical of you!
The funny thing here is, everything that I eat turns into Methane gas too. So what is the point in saying this about landfills? I know many people who could generate enough electricity for their houses and possibly parts of the blocks that they live on.
Democrat voted states want to search your trash and fine you if your throwing away 3 half rotten apples a poor person could eat. If you don't show up to court your put in jail. In the name of GLOBAL WARMING or now CLIMATE CHANGE.... Burn your trash.
Americans eat processed frankenfood. Prolly better to throw it away then put in your body.
I think it is great! So funny to see how much food we throw away, and then see a commercial with starving Africans, makes me laugh, and happy to live in a country that has so much. Screw them, America First, cuz were the best, to hell with the rest!
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