Blog Action Day – Food

Today is Blog Action Day, and the topic is food, or lack thereof. To preface this, it’s kind of a worldwide event where there will be lots of bloggers talking about this particular subject. I don’t quite remember how it all works, but I think there will be a central place where everyone that writes on the topic will be listed so they can connect with each other in some fashion. You’d think I would remember since I’ve done this in the past, but I skipped last year for some reason. No matter; I’m back now.

As the price of food has gone up pretty much everywhere around the world, we find that not only are most of us not getting out of our dollars the amount of food and consumables we’ve gotten before, but places such as the Food Bank, which helps feed those who need meals, along with many other charities, are suffering. The strange thing is that even now, the United States produces enough food to feed the world many times over, yet we don’t do it. Why?

I think a major part of it, at least in this country, is regulation. Restaurants really aren’t allowed to donate food unless they cook it fresh. Probably almost every restaurant in the country has food it has to throw away instead of donating it to a shelter that could use it the next day. I know that food court restaurants throw out a lot of food. Many years ago, when I worked a part time job at a gas station that had a retail store, at a certain time of the night we had to throw away food. Sometimes I’d eat a couple of things, but that was rare; however, it was a free meal, and I’m thinking it was still pretty good and thus could have been donated in some fashion.

When it comes to the world… well, that’s a different thing entirely. We have tariffs to deal with that help some countries compete when they’d probably lose out to richer nations, and we have some countries with high tariffs just “because”. Then we have countries like Somalia where, if we try to get them food, the powers that be, with their corrupt selves, keep it for the leadership, and won’t allow help to come into the country to make sure the food gets to those who really need it.

Goodness, countries like India, which is fairly industrialized, have problems getting food to many of its people, and when you have a billion people hanging around, that’s not good. I hear that there are parts of China and North Korea where the same things occur. I guess it would make sense since even in the United States we find people all over who can’t get a meal. Sure, some aren’t looking to help themselves, but I’m thinking that’s not the most compassionate way of looking at things.

On this Blog Action Day I use my blog to highlight the issue, whether I fully know all the implications or not. People are starving, and if all you can do is the same thing I do, that being to ask the people at the counter of our local grocery store to swipe the little ticket that’s next to the cash register so I can donate a tiny bit of cash that will feed someone, then at least do that. It all helps.
 

15 thoughts on “Blog Action Day – Food”

  1. Sadly, we throw away enough food to feed entire nations. And you can find it at many levels. Start with the little kids who dump everything in their lunches except the dessert, go on to restaurants serving “supersized” meals that end up being thrown away, food past its pull date thrown away in the supermarket, 2 day old bread thrown away. Farmers actually letting crops rot in the field, it is so ironic that all of this is happening while yes, our food prices have skyrocketed! Dumpster diving is a lifestyle for a small fringe element in this country; (and in Europe) people who eat like that manage to do quite well. No I don’t have answers. I do know that I always feel bad when I throw food away.

    1. Hi Mimi; thanks for commenting on this post. I will say that I think portions at restaurants have gotten big and people like us feel as though we have to eat all that’s on our plates. Sometimes we eat just a bit too much so that we don’t have anything to really bring back home. There really is tons of food and it seems like it should be easier to get some of it to those who really need it, but there’s not and it’s too bad.

  2. This is very complicated matter, Mitch. I hope the problem with starvation and food will be sorted somehow in the near future. Probably I will share it on Skype when we had time to chat, my point of view is a bit radical and probably its not appropriate to share it on the blog as it is related to politics model, but again may be its too late or too early to this model.

    However for the rest of us a day without food or meet is not that bad and this is not related to religious, but to pure science, controlled diet can slow down cell aging process in increase life span.

    1. Carl, one can actually go a couple of weeks without food if you at least have something to drink; seems to be more critical to stay hydrated than fed. Having said that there are people who go with a meal a week in some areas of the world, and that’s just not going to get it done. However, there’s little that can be done outside of invading the country and kicking its leaders out, and that’s not a course of action anyone can legally take right now.

      1. Yeah, hydration is more critical, this opens the point about areas which have problems with supplies of fresh and clean water.

  3. This is the problem about which not all people think and not all people care about it. So the first thing should be done is to make other people (I mean those ones who don’t have problems with food) think about it. We won’t get good results, if only several people will try to help others, it should be done by everyone who has such an opportunity. It should be public

  4. Hi, Mitch!
    Yes, it all helps. Even the smallest contribution we can make is always welcome for the starving ones. I also asked myself the same question-why restaurants throw away food when there are people that cannot afford it? Why not giving it to them? Hell, why don’t giving it to wander dogs on the street? Not even that.Guess it is easier for some people to throw something away rather than to think about their action and have the burden of another obligation to make.

    1. Kristina, I know it has to do with regulations, though I’m not sure if it’s state or federal rules. I wondered the same thing when I worked at that convenience store many years ago; it was what it was. It’s too bad because I’m sure many local food shelters would love having a lot of that stuff.

  5. alas, a far greater problem is that there are way way way too many people on the earth. While many of our dearest co-earthlings (whales, lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos) are fast becoming endangered with woefully low populations, humans are not endangered on any square of the planet, and thus there is not enough for them to eat.

    1. That’s an interesting take, Mimi. The population is getting greater and I hadn’t thought about other creatures thinning out. There’s enough food for them as well but so many animals eat only certain things while humans could eat pretty much anything. And I think the population hasn’t come close to topping out yet.

  6. Here is a wild thought, stop spending money on the military…
    Ah, it doesn’t matter, the hole system is to blame, on a global scale, a system of WASTE, so much damn WASTE and nobody is lifting a finger to stop it.

    1. Cristian, the military is important. If you don’t believe so, try being one of those countries that’s been invaded and taken over because someone else had a stronger military; no thanks. And I don’t think the problems are that we don’t have enough money; it’s that some of these country’s won’t allow the food in, some country’s won’t allow food out, and citizen’s have to deal with it, and it’s not fair or pretty. There’s enough to feed everyone.

  7. I am not agoraphobic. But I confess I am slightly antisocial. Although people would never see me as one. They usually see me as chic, smart, easy to get along with and quite often a snob but never antisocial. But I am. I hate making boring, shallow conversations so I can go on working for 8 hours without talking to anyone. Sometimes I get annoyed when someone tries to strike a conversation with me. The person would never know though because I am always polite. I guess my personality has made it better for me to thrive in the world of social media. But of course this is unhealthy. And I am NOT totally sociopathic. I have friends too. And I go out with them every now and then for some real human interaction.

    1. Thanks for joining in Reese, and I don’t think anyone has to be totally one thing or the other. I know I’ve gotten used to my own company over the years I’ve worked on my own and that’s not great because, well, I need to talk to others to get business. lol However, when I have a free day I’m often spending it boosting my online presence, which isn’t totally bad but takes time away from even trying to reach out to friends. And that’s a shame; I need to work on that.

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