Americans Seem To Be Wasteful Nation
Saturday, April 14, 2012, 2:00 AM | 2 Comments
People in the under-developed countries are dying of hunger whereas Americans have been known to not get tired wasting tons of food on a daily basis. The mentality of many folks is that they would rather eat a spoonful of peanut butter than eat leftovers. But the larger question should be:
“Why should anyone bother to buy more than one can eat let alone cook it and throw away the excess.” What makes people buy more than they could consume?
America is considered the richest country in the world with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) surpassing other nations by a long shot. At the same time and probably because of it, America is known to be the most wasteful country in the world.
Why should anyone buy excess food that sits in the fridge, rot and gets thrown out. What’s the sense in it? Even if many Americans find themselves broke and at the verge of bankruptcy, they still would throw out good food that they bought unnecessarily and in excess of what they needed. That seems to be the American way.
It’s not just the rich that are wasting but ordinary folks some of whom live paycheck to paycheck are wasting. When I talk to someone about it, I get the unsettling and uneasy answer: “That’s the American way. That’s rooted in our genes.”
Sarah Nassauer over at online.wsj.com says:
The food we throw away is getting more attention, as prices continue to rise. Still, it’s a challenge for home cooks to resist the temptation to eat out or order in.
It’s hard work using up all the food we have languishing in our refrigerators, freezers and pantries. And it takes creativity to prepare leftovers that will appeal to picky eaters.
It’s the mindset of the American people that gets in the way…
The mind of the American people is set on spending. They seem to take pride in how much more they spend each time they go out shopping or sit on their asses and shop online.
Their emotions play a big part. Their minds are on the back burner. When it comes to shopping and wasting, many folks just lose their thinking power if they ever had one.
The average U.S. family of four spends from $500 to $2,000 a year on food they never eat, according to some researchers’ estimates. Second to paper and paperboard products, the biggest item in the U.S. landfills is none other than food that was never eaten or was leftover after a few bites.
Another estimate says that about 25% of food purchased by Americans is wasted, adding up to $100 billion annually. Man! That’s $100 billion. That’s no small change. It’s mind boggling, ain’t it?
Brad Tuttle over at moneyland.time.com says…
Leftovers tend to be pitched or left ignored in the fridge because they look unappetizing, not because they’ll make you sick. Considering the high cost of food and the shaky state of the economy, though, the idea of throwing away perfectly good food can be sickening.
That’s the American way, ain’t it? When many folks throw away perfectly good food, the excuse they give is “that’s in our f*cking genes. We can’t do nothing about that.”
Whatever happened to soup kitchens in America…
They exist and are in full bloom. As a matter of fact, more people have been visiting soup kitchens for their daily meals during the last few years than ever before.
That’s an excellent thing to do. But that’s another topic. The subject of the matter for this post is waste and why we should avoid it.
How to avoid waste
The best way to avoid waste is to not buy anything if you don’t need it during the next couple of days. For that purpose, spend about 10 minutes a week and make a well-researched shopping list.
Otherwise, most grocery shoppers will naturally create food waste by overbuying, believing “we are Americans, the richest nation on earth. It’s in the American genes to waste. How else would we be considered Americans.” We all know that’s a lot of bullshit.
In a Nutshell
Let me not get carried away with this article. The fact of the matter is we must not waste, period. I would end the article with giving you food for thought and put your money where your morality is… and make a comment whether or not Americans have lost their f*cking mind.
Of course, there are people in America who are very conscientious about the waste. They don’t want to waste and they believe it’s the worst part of their job but they have to because it is corporate policy.
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2 Responses to “Americans Seem To Be Wasteful Nation”
By Erica on Apr 16, 2012, 11:17 am | Reply
I think this “mentality” of wastefulness goes beyond food. We are always buying things we want, but don’t necessarily need. I cannot think of something that epitomizes this more than the day after Thanksgiving extravaganza sales. I mean a woman pepper sprayed a human being over an xbox. And why? Because she wanted to get this item that was “on sale”. This need for the sale or finding something on sale drives this type of consumerism. What results is people using forklifts at costco to get there groceries to the car! Good read, thank you!