As some may know, earlier this year, France became the first country in the world to create a law forbidding supermarkets to waste their food products instead forcing them to give expired food to charities and food banks. Putting a large fine of up to $83,500 or two years in jail on supermarkets that don’t donate expired food, the new law is causing a significant increase in the amount of food being supplied to food banks all across the country. The law is also allowing food banks to provide more diversity in their products, allowing many people to get better nutrition.
Since the creation of this law in France, there have been hopes of passing a similar law in the U.S.
Some people are opposed to the idea, but we need to make some serious changes in our food system in order to decrease our huge amount of waste.
In the U.S., an average 40% of food that is produced goes uneaten. And, apparently, a large portion of this massive percentage is due to U.S. supermarkets, which in 2010, threw out 43 billion pounds of food. The fact that almost half of the food we produce is being thrown out means that a huge chunk of energy going towards food production is being wasted, and about half of the carbon emissions caused by food production are completely unnecessary.
There are many ways that food donation in the U.S. is encouraged, but not forced. For example, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act encourages grocery stores to donate extra food by offering certain tax deductions and liability protection to food donors. Although this is a good place to start, this incentive to donate food is having as big of an impact as is needed.
We can do what France did, in our own country, if we give enough of a push. This law in France all came from a grassroots campaign made up of passionate people fighting against poverty and food waste. Until then, we, as consumers, can be conscious of the decisions were making with our food by being conscious of expiration dates, composting expired food rather than throwing it away, and shopping with our huge food waste problem in mind.
