Argumentative Essay

Jennifer Gavidia         

Jennifer Richardson

ENG 111/ ENF 3

November 13, 2015

Food Waste

Hunger remains one of the most urgent challenges of development, but the world produces food more than enough. Food waste or food loss is food that is discarded or lost uneaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous, and occur at the stages of production, processing, retailing and consumption. Recover only half of what is lost or wasted would be enough to feed the whole planet. Many tons of food are damaged or tossed it away around the world without having been consumed by people. Nowadays, food waste is one of the issues that cause more scandal in the world. Everybody might remember the words of our mothers telling us that we must finish all the food in our plates, since many children in poor countries die of hunger. This is a harsh reality. In developed countries, consumers are primarily responsible for the waste of food, while in underdeveloped countries the majority lost their food in its production. So what can we do to solve the food waste problem in our community? I think it all starts from the consciousness of people, humans are responsible for the amount of food thrown away daily. If each of us first think about the consequences of problem, if all of us eat properly or consume the required amount or food, and if everyone of us save or donate uneaten food, would help greatly to decrease this problem on a larger scale.

When we scrape off our dishes after a big meal, too full to finish the remaining scraps on our plate, we rarely pause and think about the significance of our action. It seems routine to us: if we have leftover food scraps that are unfit for eating, shouldn’t they be thrown in the garbage? Our routine practices, unfortunately, make it difficult for us to conceptualize the magnitude of global food waste. Many people don’t realize just how harmful food waste is to the environment, and just how many problems it causes. America needs to take a stand, and find a much more effective way of dealing with food waste, before the problem gets any worse. This issue is bigger than we think. According to a recent study, Americans throw away nearly half their food, equivalent to $165 Billion annually. The first step to reducing food waste and creating lasting awareness is to actually measure how much food we are throwing away. If all of us think, we become smart shoppers on what we are buying, and what we are really consuming. Making plan meals and use a shopping list will help us to be aware of the problem and reduce food waste in our communities.

According to a recent study by the UN (United Nations) more than half of the food end up in the trash, even before reaching the plate. It is really important to learn how to eat right in order to decrease this problem. Household food waste is the result of people cooking or serving too much food. Portions of food have increased over time and large meals often include more food than we can finish. But consumers and restaurants are also to blame, preparing large portions that result in leftovers that often go uneaten or throwing away. For instance, the activist Tristram Stuart tell his experience during a TED conference. He remember going to a cafeteria, and ordering a bowl of rice, when the chef of the restaurant came to him to talk, he thought finishing his bowl, and half way of their conversation, the chef stopped talking and started frowning into his bowl. Stuart thought, "My goodness, what taboo have I broken? How have I insulted my host?" the chef pointed at three grains of rice at the bottom of Stuart’s bowl, and said to him, "Clean." Stuart thought, "My God, you know, I go around the world telling people to stop wasting food. This guy has thrashed me at my own game." He understood that we, the people, have the power to solve this problem.