Is it OK to throw away food?

[Pikachu]

I have been taught that it is wrong throw away eatable food, so whenever I have some leftover food I cannot throw it out right away. Instead I store it for a while and let it decompose. When it finally is uneatable I can throw it away with a clean conscience.

Honestly I don't understand why it is supposed to be bad to throw away food. What are your feelings about throwing away good food? Why is it wrong or why is it acceptable?

 

[The Last Conformist]

If you have to throw away food, it's evidence you need plan better, but it's not wrong per se.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

It depends, but generally yes. If I take too much, I usually eat it anyways. Some people I know are strangely anal about throwing away food you did not finish, but they are asian immigrants, so they come from a different culture.

 

[Ben E Gas]

I must admit, I throw away food also. When a lot of people in this world are starving. Maybe I should do something about my behavior. But what?

I gave a sandwhich to a homeless man once on the street. It was just purchased and I was trying to be nice. He threw it at the ground and yelled some jibberish at me. He had been begging for money at the time and I guess that's all he wanted. From then on, I just gave spare change. I've given beer also to a few. They seemed to like that gesture. I saw one guy also everyday collecting a shopping cart full of cans. I walked over to him and placed two empty cans in his cart. He got pissed and threw them out. I was shocked, I guess he didn't want me touching his cart.....or stop and shop's cart that is.

But I guess I shouldn't be so wasteful with food.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

The only time I throw out lots of food is after Thanksgiving. By the third day turkey meat is like kryptonite and just the thought of it makes me gag.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Well, it depends in which way...

Is it morally OK to throw away food ?
No it's not.

Is it rationally OK to throw away food ?
Well, we can see everyday that it is.


It's not morally OK to throw away food because there are still hunger in other places on the planet. However, it's rationally OK to throw away food because some overproduction may happen locally, with no way to distribute the food where it's needed. In food grocery stores, tons of food are wasted everyday, but it's impossible to do in any other way.

 

[The Last Conformist]

If all food produced in the world were actually eaten, the obesity epidemic would be much worse.

 

[Marla_Singer]

When I was a kid, I remember that when I didn't want to finish my plate, my mother told me that there were kids in the world who were starving and who would have loved to get the food remaining in my plate. Then I answered to her : "Do you really want me to fill up myself while thinking about starving people ?? That's disgusting !"

 

[IglooDame]

"Eat your liver, don't you know there are starving kids in Cambodia/Ethiopia/etc?!?!"

I got that when I was a kid. I think it stops in most families as soon as the youngling brings up the cost of shipping his extra spinach to a different continent, but still, there's always a little mother-ish voice telling me that when I have some food left on my plate, and I'm 34 now.

Say, perhaps that is where the American obesity epidemic is coming from?

 

[Double Barrel]

I used to think about all the starving people and the guilt associated with throwing away food. But, what am I supposed to do? Send them a half eaten sandwich and an opened bag of chips?!

And even if we could feed the entire world, they would just be hungry again tomorrow. On top of that, they would just have more kids, which is more people to feed. It seems that some parts of the world do not believe, or understand, the concept of sustainable development. Why have 20 kids when you can't even feed yourself? Watching your child die of starvation has to be one of the saddest things a human can go through.

It is sad to say, but there is not a lot that we, as individuals, can do about it, other than feed the homeless in our own towns/cities. I feel for the starving masses in Africa, but they've got to take care of their own people.

Even when our governments and charity organizations try to do something, the food rots on docks and in warehouses because of the corrupt systems and warlord / territorial boundaries of their cultures. Sad really.

 

[The Last Conformist]

When I was a kid, I remember that when I didn't want to finish my plate, my mother told me that there were kids in the world who were starving and who would have loved to get the food remaining in my plate. Then I answered to her : "Do you really want me to fill up myself while thinking about starving people ?? That's disgusting !"

My reply was "Good, then, that I'm not eating this; you can send it to Africa".

 

[Immortal]

I always cook less food than I am hungry for, as such I rarely have leftovers. 1 sidekick and a tuna sandwich was dinner for me two nights ago.

I hate wasting food, any amount.

 

[Mise]

It's not morally OK to throw away food because there are still hunger in other places on the planet.

Don't get this at all. What has this got to do with morality? I always thought both arguements were "rational", i.e. waste is irrational by definition, and shipping left-over brocolli to Somalia is irrational also. I mean, it's irrational to flush a pound coin down the toilet. (a bit stupid too)

My reply was "Good, then, that I'm not eating this; you can send it to Africa".

Yeah, that was mine too. That, or, "Don't care, I'm not hungry and I don't like brocolli."

 

[Marla_Singer]

waste is irrational by definition

I disagree. How waste is necessarily irrational ?

Imagine you're a salad producer, you care only about white crusty salad because that's only what your client is ready to buy. As such, you will produce tons of salads, knowing half won't be sold, but simply because that's the only way to be sure to get a good portion of white crusty salad.

As such, you're wasting food, but you're doing it rationally.

 

[Global Nexus]

Though throwing away food is evidence of poor planning, as stated earlier in this thread, there's nothing morally wrong -- or right -- about it. Just because people around the world are starving to death doesn't mean you should overeat and make yourself fat.

 

[Mise]

I disagree. How waste is necessarily irrational ?

Imagine you're a salad producer, you care only about white crusty salad because that's only what your client is ready to buy. As such, you will produce tons of salads, knowing half won't be sold, but simply because that's the only way to be sure to get a good portion of white crusty salad.

As such, you're wasting food, but you're doing it rationally.

Well, the rational thing to do would be to find way to make use of the wasted salad, rather than to throw it away. Technically, the production of salad is the "rational" part, not the waste itself.

 

[thestonesfan]

I hate wasting anything. Including food. No sense in it at all. It's the root cause of most of the problems in the western world.

 

[CivCube]

When I think of the journey a single slab of meat takes from a part of a cow to the hamburger in my hand, I just can't throw it away.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Well, the rational thing to do would be to find way to make use of the wasted salad, rather than to throw it away.

And if there's no way to do so ?

Technically, the production of salad is the "rational" part, not the waste itself.

I don't get it. If wastes are necessary to produce salad, then wastes are rational (in the frame of salad production of course).

 

[Stapel]

pfff.....
Of course it is ok!

The hunger in the world is not a food production problem, but an economical problem in the places where is hunger.

Producing more food 'here' is not going to help.

Leftwing nonsense.........