Food waste is an issue that can be seen all around the world. According to information presented by the Recycle Track System (RTS) this year, around 1.4 billion tons of food is wasted every year. In the United States, about 40 million tons of food is wasted every year which accounts for about 40% to 50% of the food supply in the country. 

Although a lot of food is wasted in the U.S. every year, there are still millions of people who suffer from food insecurity. According to the RTS, before the pandemic, around 35 million people in the U.S. suffered from food insecurity. However, as of 2021 and as a result of the global pandemic, the number of people suffering from food insecurity has increased to 50 million. 

With these alarming numbers, the question prevails: Why do people in the U.S. waste so much food with so many people suffering from the need for basic food? 

Some of the causes for food waste are lack of knowledge, confusion, socioeconomic inequality, behaviors, and habits. As stated by the RTS, about 80% of people in the U.S. discard food simply because of the expiration label. 

Wasting so much food can have a lot of negative repercussions, such as environmental issues because all the food that has been wasted ends up in landfills. This leads to waste of water, pollution, and irreversible damage to the environment. It can also cost economic repercussions because of all the money that ends up wasted along with the food that is being discarded. 

Nevertheless, there are a lot of ways to help reduce this issue, and EMU does everything that is possible to prevent food waste on campus. Food Services Director Bruce Emmerson says, “We try to have zero waste, but obviously that is not possible […] we have separate baskets in the kitchen that are only for food scraps. This gets picked up twice a week and taken to the compost. We donate leftovers to SFI and they package up the food and put it in their freezer for anyone struggling with food insecurity.”

 Levi Geyer, a junior and SFI member at EMU, mentions, “Food waste is a huge issue in our country and at EMU. We do take steps here to reduce food waste by packaging some cafeteria leftovers, and we compost our waste, which is much better than putting it in a landfill.”

Other students at EMU are also concerned with this food waste problem. Fatimah Subhi, junior, remarks, “I think this problem with food waste can be minimized by stopping the overproduction and choosing the benefits of humans and the planet over the benefit of extremely capitalized culture.” 

Food services at EMU and SFI have done a great job at trying to prevent food waste, but there are things that they can’t control, so it is important for students at EMU to at least be informed about issues and consequences of food waste in order to find solutions to prevent such a problem.