Reed n' Seed 2: First quarter of "Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal"

(photo was taken from www.amazon.com)

For the first quarter of "Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal" I read 75 pages and read up to half-way through chapter five. I changed my reading because I did not realize that about a fourth of the book is actually the annex and bibliography. Therefore, I split it into four quarters for the book and I will read 75 pages in order to reach 298 pages by the end.

Some of the main topics that I read about were how supermarkets are main causes of food waste in the world. It is hard to know the real waste that supermarkets contribute to the world and landfills because they are never usually recorded and owners usually underestimate waste when asked about it. This is usually because they do not want a bad public image to get out by letting people know how much food they are actually wasting that could be given to charities. It also talks about some ways supermarkets can avoid such high waste numbers by keeping a lower inventory and more bare shelves during the shopping day or not preparing pre-made meals until they are ordered.

Another main topic that is discussed is how manufacturers contribute to the worlds amount of waste. It is estimated that manufacturers waste about 1/3 of the food they make. Manufacturers are over-powered by supermarkets because of the amount of food these supermarkets buy from them they don't want to risk losing their business by not having enough product for them. The book talks about ways to eliminate waste, for example, by finding uses for by-products.

One significant thing that I have learned how manufacturers are pretty much powered by the supermarkets. I did not know this and it is a huge factor as to how much waste manufacturers produce. If the manufacturers were able to stand up to supermarkets and not be bullied by them the amount of waste would minimize greatly. Also, I learned that many supermarkets refuse to donate their "waste" to charities sometimes for the sole reason that they "prefer to sell it". I think that this is a terrible thing, there are many people in the world starving because they cannot afford food so if this food is just going to go into the trash they might as well do some good with it and let people eat it to survive.

New terminology:

1. irrevocable - not to be revoked or recalled (taken from: http://dictionary.reference.com/)
2. mangrove - any tropical tree or shrub of the genus Rhizophora,  the species of which are mostly low trees growing in marshes or tidal shores, noted for their interlacing above-ground adventitious roots. (taken from http://dictionary.reference.com/)
3. extrapolating - to infer (an unknown) from something that is known; conjecture. (taken from: http://dictionary.reference.com/)

The things that I have learned and read affect society greatly. Each time a supermarket throws something away that could be recycled or given to a charity it affects the environment. It affects the environment by using transportation to get it to supermarkets, to landfills, and how to dispose of these wastes. If some of these things were to be donated or not even made in the first place it would greatly improve our environment and even slow down many of the environmental problems that we have. I think that we should care about this because if we don't care about it we could be in for a world of hurt in the future when it is too late to change how we are doing things and the environment is at a point of no return. Hopefully, people start to understand that this is a huge deal that we need to deal with as soon as possible.