You took more than you could eat and you do not want to get too full Your dad is making his famous burgers at home tonight It was a typical lunch You laughed with your friends and ate But did you think about what you ate You probably picked items you thought tasted good Or maybe you chose foods you knew were good for you But did you think about where your foods came from Where did the chicken strips come from before the school kitchen Was the chocolate in your friend’s brownie shipped from overseas You know throwing foods away is wasteful But did you know all your food choices affect other people as well as animals and the environment Bigger Faster Cheaper Food production involves every part of the economy It takes energy transportation and agriculture to produce foods Production has become more industrialized over the past century Today’s food industry is focused on producing foods quickly and 6
It is likely any chicken you cook at home comes from a factory farm cheaply But many parts of food production have become harmful to consumers Animal Environmental and Human Rights Abuse More than 99 percent of US chickens are raised on factory farms Most chickens raised on factory farms never see the sun or grass They often live in a huge shed packed so tightly with thousands of other 7
Modern Food Facts In 2011 there were approximately 19 billion chickens on Earth That was three chickens for every person There were 1 4 billion cattle and 1 billion sheep and pigs That year the average American ate 1,996 pounds 905 kg of food As a whole Americans threw away 3,000 pounds 1,361 kg of food every second This adds up to 96 billion pounds 43 5 billion kg of food thrown away every year 8 chickens that they cannot spread their wings Chickens on factory farms may wade in piles of waste that is cleaned from the shed only once a year This waste pollutes groundwater and nearby rivers when it is flushed out of the shed Waste from cows raised to become hamburger also pollutes nearby land and water The cows are crowded in small pens and denied proper care Such farming methods have widespread effects Food production affects the environment in other ways too Often foods grown in North America are shipped overseas creating air
9 pollution and using up resources and energy Many imported foods come from large corporations This can impact people negatively because large corporations may force smaller farmers to sell their crops for low prices The corporations then raise prices so they can make more money which they often do not share with their workers Some large food corporations even use slaves to grow foods Throwing Food Away Producing an abundance of food and throwing it away is unethical Throwing food away is also a waste of the resources used to grow or raise process package and transport those foods Above is a graph of the types of garbage created in the United States in 2010 Are you surprised to see food makes up the largest percentage Knowing this information how can you change what you throw away in your daily life Food 21 Paper Paperboard 17 Yard Trimmings 9 Other 2 Glass 5 Metals 9 Plastic 18 Textiles 7 Wood 8 Rubber Leather 4
