Why cant we be Responsible? The USA's Hunger Issue

Eric Girton

1/29/18

Word Count: 1,393

The USA's Hunger Issue

This past week in class we focused on Chapter 5 of the "Food" book by Warren Belasco. In this chapter, it highlighted the importance of responsibility with food. The term, responsibility, as defined by the book, means meeting one's obligations to others. This definition, in which the author states that the word responsible derives from the Greek word "Sponde" (to make an offering/ treaty/ libation), and the word "re-spond" (to reply to another's offering or gesture or treaty). This idea of responsibility is somewhat similar to the responsibility that we define today as the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone. Then we went on to find the incorporation of food responsibility and the serious problems that our modern society has with food, hunger, food-borne diseases, obesity, etc.

Food waste in the United States is astonishing. 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted per year. Food waste creates habitat loss, and loss of species. We need to stop wasting because we are not only creating waste in landfills, but it is creating starvation. People are starving because we are purchasing more food than we need, not leaving enough for others. 90 percent of wasted food ends up in landfills when it could be in a compost pile. People throw things away in their landfill bin out of convenience and don't even remember that compost is available. They are not being food responsible.

Super markets have major food power. In the film, Wasted! The Story of Food Waste, we learned that super markets throw out a ton of food that isn't expired. They cannot sell it anymore because the sell by date is over, but it is still consumable. The difference between best buy, and sell by, are very different, but leave customers throwing away perfectly good food because of the confusion. The smell test remains the best factor in deciding if your food is good to eat. This test, as shown in the movie, is done simply by smelling the food to test if it is sour, or not good.

When food decomposes in a compost pile, it turns into soil that can be used to grow more foods in. When food decomposes in a landfill there is no good outcome. The rotting foods release methane gas because of the lack of oxygen, and can take years to finally break down. If these same compostable foods had been put into a layered compost pile, they would have broken down and decomposed much sooner. Methane gas has been found to be more dangerous for the environment than CO2 which we all commonly think is the worst. By disposing of food waste properly, we are not only making a renewable source, but keeping the environment clean.

According to Wasted! people spend approximately $1,500 per year on food that they end up wasting. If you as a consumer thought in the moment, that money could be used to take your family on a vacation, yet it is spent on food you don’t even enjoy. The statistics are scary, and make us realize how much money we could be saving if we only bought exactly what we knew we were going to eat.

Now that we have cleared through some of these astounding facts about exactly how much we waste every year, lets now look at a major issue of food responsibility. Food responsibility to me means making sure there is enough food for everyone. It doesn’t mean taking more than what you actually need. In the United States, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, a shocking 1 in every 4 people in the united states are food insecure. This ultimately means that they don’t know when or what their next meal will be.

If we take a closer look at this problem and view it from a more local standpoint the statistics are still shocking. According to the 2017 Annual Report by the Emergency Food Network, 1 in 7 people struggle with hunger in Washington State. Over 14.8 million pounds of food were given in 2017 to people in Pierce County who needed it. Over 1.3 Million visits are made to the EFN facilities in 2017 to pick up food.

What can we do to help hungry Americans?

There are many things people can do to help those who are hungry. A huge way to help those in need is to simply give. A lot of people nation-wide as well as in our own government believe that if people are poor it is their own fault. For some it could be the case, but a growing majority of those whom are greatly affected are actually working families with children and many senior citizens who are retired but still struggling to find enough food. Giving food that you don’t need or may end up throwing away can go a very long way. According to the Emergency Food Network, 82 percent of the food it distributes comes from Community food drives and donations. Donating money can go a long way as well. The EFN reports that if you donate one dollar, the EFN will effectively utilize that to distribute 12 dollars worth of food. Amazing.

In my home state of Hawaii we have a very large growing problem of homelessness and wealth distribution. The costs of living and food are extremely high because the majority of all of the items we see at supermarkets are imported and shipped from around the world. The Hawaii Foodbank is the only nonprofit agency in the state of Hawaii that collects, warehouses and distributes mass quantities of both perishable and nonperishable food through nearly 200 charitable agencies on Oahu and Kauai. The organization helps to form a vital link with food donors, charitable agencies and the hungry in Hawaii by collecting, inspecting, storing and distributing donated and purchased food. In 2017, the Hawaii Foodbank distributed over 13.7 million pounds of food from their warehouse locations in Oahu and Kauai. According to the Hawaii Food Bank, each year, over 287,000 people are served food each year in our small state. There are only about 1.4 million people in the state as a whole.

The Food Bank for New York City is a good example of a pop culture. The organization partners with celebrities in the area that provide donations through money, and also their personal advertisements. This is a well known food bank, and provides many donations because the people who endorse it are very popular. Some of the celebrities include, Robin Roberts, Kevin Bacon, and Stanley Tucci. The Food Bank for New York City provides 1.5 million New Yorkers with food. They deliver food, as well as have centers for people to pick the food up. This organization has become very popular, and is well known in social media and the news because of the celebrities who work hard to donate money and food towards the cause. 

In conclusion, when addressing the question of what we can do to help the millions of starving or food insecure Americans, there are many different ways to fight this problem. First, as shown and expressed throughout this reflection is by simply giving and donating, either food or money to these food banks and drives. Minimum wage is starting to gradually go up but we cannot really rely on the economic system we have alone. Even the food stamps will not be a sufficient way to solve this problem. Our government spends billions that could be used to fight hunger for more or less , wasteful or insufficient programs. The key is to tackle the problem at hand. Why are we so wasteful when we have people starving or hungry possibly around us? We are not exposed to the big picture as a society because this doesn't affect us all. By utilizing compost or just buying what is on your shopping list ALONE can be small ways to help make sure that food is distributed equally to all. That's how we can be food responsible. If you don't want to give or donate money, then please, eat all that you get or compost it so that the nutrients and materials can be decomposed and returned to the Earth which we so generously rely on to live.