Global Hunger In Canada

Words: 1057
Pages: 5

“Finish your dinner, don’t you know there are children in Africa who are starving?” my mother would tell me as I did my best to avoid the carrots on my plate. What do starving African children have to do with me eating nasty carrots for supper? I never understood that. Even though we don’t want to admit it, our mothers are often wiser than we care to admit. Firstly, there are starving children in Africa and elsewhere for that matter. Secondly, throwing away perfectly good food is a bad idea. “According to the UN, 870 million people across the globe remain chronically underfed, yet nearly half of the world's food supply is wasted every year.” (Orion Jones), “To Solve the World Food Crisis, Stop Wastage” Global hunger isn’t about a lack …show more content…
We have a growing number of Canadians who do not make enough money to handle the rising costs of food. Globally around a third of all food produced (1.3 billion tons) is wasted; in America, the figure jumps to half. In Canada, we throw away 30 to 40% of the food we produce. How are we wasting so much food? Food waste isn’t simple. Food waste exists all the way down the food chain. We see the largest waste with farmers, supermarkets and restaurants and finally home waste. FOOD & HUNGER Food waste and the hungry By Sadiq Mohammed APRIL 17, …show more content…
Supermarkets often assign aggressive “best before dates” They set these dates to protect their customers from illness. This is the right idea, except that it results in huge amounts of food being thrown away when it is still useable. More than 50% of stores and restaurants do not have any policies on food waste or recycling. When asked about donating the food they often claim it is too costly and that it can be a liability. This is such a common problem there was actually a Seinfeld episode on it. The world does see the importance of the elimination of food waste. In fact, France was the first country to pass a law that requires supermarkets to donate unsold food to charities and or to be used as animal food. More can be done. In Canada, we need to fight to force supermarkets to stock and sell imperfect vegetables at lower prices, donate food to those in need, and revise their overly cautious