What's in a Date? - Dive! Living off America's Waste Essay

What’s in a Date?

     More than 90% of American consumers throw away food prematurely, and 40% of the U.S. food supply is thrown away unused every year. Food waste is the biggest contributor to landfills, 96 billion pounds a year. The primary reason American’s throw away food prematurely, is due to the confusion over what expiration dates mean. Standardizing food dating will assist the consumer in determining when to actually discard food. Until the dates are standardized, consumers should educate themselves on the origin and meaning of the various dates, such as ‘Sell by’, ‘Best by’, and ‘Use by’. This knowledge will help households save hundreds of dollars a year on food bills.    

     Food dating began in the 1970s, as Americans produced less of their own food they still wanted information about how it was made. The government does not regulate food labeling, except for baby food. The Food Marketing institute determined that confusion over food labeling causes up to 90% of food waste . The Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture have regulatory purview over food labels, but have left methodology up to the discretion of individual manufacturers (Tuttle). "It's like the Wild West," NRDC scientist Dana Gunders told Time magazine (Tuttle).

     The date most commonly recognized is the ‘Sell by’ date that appears on packaged food. This date is a stocking and marketing tool provided by the manufacturer. The ‘Sell by’ date printed on packaged food is meant to assist the retailer with store stock and product turnover. This date is usually found on highly perishable foods with a short shelf life, such as milk, bread, and meat. It also ensures the product still has a long shelf life after the consumer buys them. The ‘Sell by’ date represents peak quality, not safety. Manufacturers want consumers to use their product when it is at its best, and they have an economic incentive to move older product off the shelf to be replaced by newer product. The result is that the ‘Sell by’ dates tend to be rather conservative contributing to food being discarded weeks before it needs to be.  Consumers lose hundreds of dollars a year by discarding food they incorrectly assume has gone bad.  It has been suggested that the ‘Sell by’ date should be made invisible to the consumer. ‘Sell by’ dates need to be standardized nationwide and should be representative of when food will spoil, not as a way to boost sales for manufacturers.

     While the ‘Sell by’ date is meant for the retailer, the ‘Best before’ and ‘Best if used by’ are intended for consumer use. These dates are found on products like baked goods, cereals, snacks, and some canned goods. These dates are when the manufacturer estimates the product has reached its peak freshness. The intent of these dates is to ensure the product still has a shelf life after the consumers purchase them by the printed date. They do not indicate spoilage or that the food is unsafe to eat. The manufacturers want to make sure the consumer eats and tastes a high quality product. However, the food is still safe to eat after this date. For example, the other day I went into my pantry and grabbed a package of tortilla wraps. The package was stamped with the following: PB (purchase by) Mar 7 14. The tortillas were still soft and tasted no different than the day they were purchased. 

    Other consumer dates are ‘Expiration’, ‘Use by’, and ‘Use before’. These dates appear on yogurt, eggs, and other refrigerated foods. These dates are supposed to represent a product is no longer sufficient to consume beyond its ‘expiration’ date. Again, as with the other dates, they are established by the manufacturer and are very conservative. Eggs, for example, can be consumed up to five weeks after being purchased, even though the ‘use by’ date is much earlier. Another example is a box of mac-and-cheese with a ‘use by’ date of March 2013 can be enjoyed on March 2014, most likely with no noticeable changes in quality or taste.

     Unfortunately, Congress and the food manufacturers have not taken the initiative to standardize food dating. It is up to the consumer to educate themselves on food dating. Understanding food dating will save households money and reduce the amount of food waste in landfills. There is a quote about life that could be applied to food, and it reads ‘Enjoy life now, it has an expiration date’.          

    

     

Works Cited

Tuttle, Hilary. "'Use by' leaves food unused." Risk Management Nov. 2013: 12. Academic OneFile. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

Schiffman, Richard. "What a waste! Food advocates call for grocery stores to combat food waste."   

May-June 2013: 14+. Academic OneFile. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

"Decoding the freshness dates on food labels." Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter Nov. 1997:  3.  Academic OneFile. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

 

 

    

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dive! Living off Americas Waste Journal

     The documentary ‘Dive! Living off America’s Waste’ is about people who dumpster dive for food. The documentary primarily follows a family of four who live off the food found in dumpsters located behind grocery stores. However, there are other stories and facts that are brought to light. The father discusses the waste across the food chain from the farm to the store to the household, landfills, and feeding the homeless.

     The father goes out to the various grocery stores dumpster after the stores have closed. The stores throw away food that is perfectly safe to eat. Food that is close to or outside the ‘sell by date’, meat that has turned a little brown, and pre-packaged food such as fruit that may have one piece that has rotted is thrown away daily. Another interesting point was that the people who dumpster dive followed a couple of unwritten rules such as leave the dumpster area cleaner than you found it and take only what you can consume. The impression that I got was these people could afford to buy their food, but wanted to make a bigger statement about the waste of perfectly good food.   

     The United States throws away 96 billion pounds of food per year.  Half of the food grown is never harvested. The amount of food wasted cost more money than what is spent on food stamps. The amount of food wasted could feed the homeless here in the United States and abroad. The documentary made it very clear that the grocery stores do not want to address the issue. President Bill Clinton passed ‘The Good Samaritan Act’ to absolve stores’ from liability if they donate food and someone becomes ill.  

     There are several different areas to research such as how is the ‘sell by date’ determined and what does it mean what, what criteria do stores use when discarding food, and why does the United States waste so much food even before it makes it to the store.   

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint - Global Warming Essay

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

     What is global warming? Global warming is caused by greenhouse gases causing the thin layer of atmosphere to become more opaque trapping infrared radiation which increases the earth’s temperature. Since global warming impacts all of us; we should all do our part to decrease greenhouse gases. Lowering your carbon footprint is one way to decrease greenhouse gases. Recycling, becoming energy efficient in your home, planting trees, and living a healthy lifestyle are several ways each of us can lower our carbon footprint.

     Recycling not only saves energy, but it also reduces what ends up in landfills. Cell phones, computers, batteries, calculators and other electronic equipment can all be recycled. Electronic waste or e-waste contain toxic material such as lead, cadmium, and mercury that can contaminate soil and water if sent to a landfill. Everyday household products such as paper, cardboard, aluminum, plastic, and glass can be recycled. Another way to recycle paper is to use it to start a fire in the fireplace or woodstove. Also, shredded paper can be used as mulch around plants, litter for the cat or rabbit, and placed in a compost bin. Buying products that contain post-consumer waste is another form of recycling.      

     Besides recycling, one of the biggest impacts you can make in your home is to replace all incandescent light bulbs with compact florescent light bulbs. A 60 watt light bulb burning 4 hours per day generates 93 pounds of CO2 annually, while the compact florescent bulb generates 28 pounds. For low light areas use LED bulbs, which use little energy and last a long time. "If everyone changed one bulb to an LED light, we could close the biggest nuclear power plant in the country," says Emanuel Rose, an LED expert at electronics company C. Crane in Fortuna, California (Behar). Natural light is best for your eyes, so open the window coverings and leave the lights off. Just turning off the lights and electronics would save one ton of CO2 annually. The next time you’re in the market for a computer consider buying a laptop instead of a desktop. A desktop computer running 8 hours a day uses 618 pounds of CO2 annually, while the average laptop generates 77 pounds. Many electronics that are still usable can be donated and you can use their fair market value as a tax deduction. When purchasing appliances look for the Energy Star rating symbol. The Energy Star symbol means that the product has met strict energy efficiency requirements from the US Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy.

     When most people talk about ways to fight global warming, they usually mean reducing the use of fossil fuels or the elimination of the slash and burn agricultural practices in the tropics. But another way to offset the carbon dioxide build up that is contributing to global warming is by planting trees. Trees draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it away in organic matter. If every American household planted 1 tree, it would reduce CO2 by a billion pounds a year. A billion pounds of CO2 is the equivalent of 100,000 cars. There are other benefits for household’s that plant multiple trees, besides reducing CO2. "Plant just three trees around your home and the shade could cut your AC bills by 50 percent," says Deborah Gangloff, executive director of American Forests, an organization that coordinates tree-planting efforts (Behar).

     Healthy living is another way to reduce your carbon footprint. Being ill has a high carbon footprint; hospitals use up a vast amount of resources (Cossham).  One of the best things to lower your CO2 emissions is to become a vegan or vegetarian and eat locally grown food. If you have a diet that is heavy on milk, cheese and meat, then you have a much higher "hidden" carbon footprint--the emissions that are a byproduct of the production of those foods (Cossham). One of the biggest contributors to global warming is the emissions from gasoline engines. Instead of driving your car, ride your bike, walk, or take public transportation. Not only will you be living a healthier life style by biking or walking, you will avoid creating one of the biggest contributors to global warming – the emissions from gasoline engines.

     We do not have to wait on the government to address global warming, every one of us can do our part to reduce our carbon footprint. Tony Blair once said, “If we take all these actions and if it turns out not to be true, we have reduced pollution and have better ways to live, the downside is very small. The other way around, and we don’t act, and it turns out to be true, then we have betrayed future generations and we don’t have the right to do that.” Everyone has a responsibility to ensure future generations can enjoy life on earth.
                           

  

Works Cited

Behar, Michael. "Keep your cool." Women's Health Apr. 2007: 114. General OneFile. Web. 3 Mar.       2014.

Cossham, John. "How To. . . Reduce Your Carbon Footprint." Ecologist 39.1 (2009): 54-55. General

Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 4 Mar. 2014.

Eastler, Sara Lynn. "Cultivating a 'green' thumb in your indexing business." Key Words Apr.-June 2007:  50+. Academic OneFile. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.                                                         

Global Warming Journal

An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary, created by Al Gore in 2006, talks about the effects of global warming. Al Gore was inspired by research done by one of his college professor’s, Roger Revelle in 1958. Revelle began measuring carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and studying its impact on the planet. His research suggested as the earth’s population along with the increased dependency on fossil fuels the oceans would not be able to absorb the excess carbon dioxide. Revelle suggested the excess human gas emissions might create a "greenhouse effect" that would cause global warming over time.

     Gore’s documentary suggested that global warming had various effects on the earth’s environment. As the greenhouses gases increase the thin layer of atmosphere becomes more opaque trapping infrared radiation which increases the earth’s temperature. When the earth’s temperature increases it has a chain reaction effect on the earth’s environment. The impacts are numerous such as melting of glaciers, rising sea levels and temperatures, an increase in catastrophic storms, shifting weather patterns, impacts on wildlife including insects, and the increase in diseases.

     The documentary also discussed ways we could decrease greenhouse gases such as recycling, renewable energy sources, using hybrid and fuel cell cars, efficient electronics, and building energy efficient homes and buildings. One of the ironic things to me about Al Gore’s documentary was watching him flying all over the world, taking gas guzzling taxi cabs, and driving a Lexus. Things that make you go hmmmm.