If nations wasted a third of their resources, there would be a global crisis. Lack of water, oil, metals, coal, and more would drive the world to be “resource-poor” and unable to sustain developing industries or humanity itself. Yet, one-third of all food is wasted on its journey from the seedlings and the livestock to the trash can. The documentary Wasted! The Story of Wasted Food masterfully depicts this state of emergency with a display of where, why, when, and how food goes to waste during its lifetime. It also proposes multiple easy solutions to dealing with food and how they have been implemented in multiple places worldwide. The film was structured in a problem-response format, in which an issue was exhibited, then innovative ideas were used to give the audience a sense of urgency, yet comfort, knowing that not all hope is lost.
The produce artfully ordered the balance between fact and commentary, utilizing startling statistics such as “over 90% of wasted food in the U.S. ends up in landfills,” “Food waste costs 1 trillion dollars every year”, “800 million people are starving”, “1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year”, and “food production is the single biggest cause of deforestation, water extraction, habitat loss, and biodiversity loss,.” Then, the movie goes in-depth on how to solve these hindrances.
The first solution is diverting wasted food from people who need it. Since an enormous amount of food is thrown out right from the very start - at the farms - that food can be brought to countries that have a starving populous to distribute food more fairly. Even more, food is lost, however, at the markets. In grocery stores, food is either rejected before it reaches the shelf, or is thrown out at the infamously inflated “expiration date.” Most big grocery stores overstock to give the shopper the appeal of infinite food but toss the leftovers. They paint this facade of “compostable” or “eco-friendly”, when the markets are behind many food allocation problems that cause food issues today. Distributing this food could end world hunger, as there is much more food wasted than people starving.
The second solution is to feed animals, specifically livestock. Feed such as grain that is mainly fed to livestock is unhealthy for all parties involved - the soil, the animal, and the persons who consumes the animal. Meanwhile, leftovers in Japan produced by Eco-feed have been proven to have healthier effects on livestock because they consume good bacteria and stay healthy. They also taste better for the consumer.
The third solution is to convert leftover food into biofuel. The film features a yogurt factory that converts yogurt into energy that can power the biofuel facility with abundant energy to spare. The economic impacts are tangible as well, as the Greek yogurt company saves two and a half million dollars a year. This also has environmental benefits, as recent years have hyped up the “war on fossil fuels”, and relying on cheap biofuel can help destabilize these greasy, oily giants.
Finally, the producer underscores the importance of preventing food from going to the landfill, the worst possible option. Food in landfills turns into methane, a more potent greenhouse gas. Through chemical decomposition without air, specifically oxygen, these nutrients quickly turn into the one thing that the food giants claim they prevent. In South Korea, an innovative system forces people to weigh people’s food waste, then charge them for the amount they waste. This system saw them eliminate almost all “landfill-bound” waste in 2013.
Despite the many seemingly insurmountable conflicts the human race faces today, food waste is a no-brainer. The easy solution is to divert food waste, but any person can conserve food and try not to toss out “expired” food. Although food waste is just the first step, it's a step away from extinction and in the right direction.
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