Issue 732 Cost of food December 10, 2015

Getting away from government and raising some awareness today.  In this case, some info on why food costs can be so high.

Cost of food:  Did you know (this info all come from National Geographic FYI) that in 2010 21% of food at the consumer level went uneaten according to the USDA.  This un-eaten food includes all edible foods, post-harvest, that is available for human consumption, but for whatever reason is not consumed.  So this un-eaten food is the rejected food at harvest because it is deemed ugly, or defective in some way, half eaten pasta at restaurants and even spoiled food like sour milk.  It is kind of wasteful if you consider it.  In fact it is very wasteful according to the numbers.  About 25% of fresh water is used on agriculture, water that we could be drinking.  Over 300 million barrels of oil is lost due to this waste.  It is 2.5% of the energy production in the U.S. that could have been used elsewhere.  Total costs financially is $115 million.  That is a lot of waste and that hurts us and the nation's economy here in the U.S.  But what can we do about it?  Simple, take home and eat your leftovers.  Learn ways to use every part of a butchered animal, fruit or vegetable.  Be able to take leftovers say from turkey dinner and be able to turn them into something else edible so it does not go to waste.  Even learning to turn sour milk into yogurt may help.  Buying produce that looks like some twisted alien will help as well as much of those ugly foods are simply thrown out.  This means less waste as a whole.  

Conclusion:  Food waste could possibly become a bigger and bigger issue.  That fresh water could potentially become very expensive with the fear of a coming food crisis (hence why people advocate eating bugs and the introduction of other exotic foods into the world's diet).  Oil we already know has issues with price and scarcity and wasting money on anything (non-essentials and things that do not make a person's quality of life improve) is a loser's way to poverty if left unchecked.  So maybe it is time we start looking at what we eat and how we eat differently.  Maybe we can "change the world" (sorry could not help myself with that old cliché).