Why wasted so much food while the world is in hunger?

Question

Why doesn't the food minister do something about the wasted food? There are so many restaurants out there and they wasted tone of food while so many people are died of hunger in the third world. For example, Macdonald, Tim Horton, buffet, or other similar restaurants etc... You will never imagine how much food they through away during the day and closing at night. Why don't they give the food to poor or homeless people or have a truck collects all those wasted food etc... I am not talking about money here, because the cost of these wasted food means nothing to those business people; I am talking about conscience or ethic, don't they feel bad about this?

Answer 1

"The World" can produce more than enough food. The problem of 'hunger' is a political problem, not an economic problem. Solve the world's political problems and you will solve hunger.

P.S. more than 1 billion human beings are now overweight. Obesity may be as 'big' a problem as hunger!

Answer 2

The world isn't hungry from a lack of food. In most of the industrialized world starvation is virtually unknown. Certainly there are some people that go hungry occasionally. There are a fair number of people that for one reason or another can't provide for themselves, and while the government provides enough to live on, it's not a life that you could ever be comfortable with.

Outside the industrialized world, starvation in particular, but hunger in general, is caused more by politics and infrastructure, than by an absolute lack of food. During the 1980s Ethiopia had a terrible drought, and the world sent thousands of tons of food. When the first ships arrived at the ports, much of the food was offloaded into trucks that disappeared to feed the armies fighting a civil war. Even after the world learned to better control the food, there were few roads which could carry trucks to get food out to the people starving in the countryside. In the 1990s North Korea experienced terrible drought. The world sent thousands of tons of food, and again, the military took their share first, and the rest of the world was never able to maintain very good control over the food, because of North Korea's restrictive society. Just a couple of years ago there was a terrible earthquake in Pakistan, and there were worries about people starving or freezing to death in the mountains. Food had to be airlifted in by helicoptor because all the roads had been destroyed.

So, it really all does come down to money, and power. You need the money to hire the ships and the trucks and the planes and the helecoptors, and the people to load and unload the food. And you need the help of the people in the area that see food as power, because a starving person will likely do whatever you tell them to, in order to provide for themselves and their family.

Answer 3

As pointed out, the problem is political however it goes deeper than some people realize. Farm subsidies are a heavy cause of malnutrition. In Indonesia alone, it is estimated that 5 million people have become impoverished in order to protect Indonesian farmers from competition.

To most people that sounds backwards, but it works like this. Food in Indonesia costs a lot more than it should because Indonesian farmers are non-competitively priced against the world market. The degree of the tariff protecting the farmers is sufficient to cause 5 million people to suffer. All farm subsidies create wasted food. Farm subsidies in the US cause starvation in other parts of the world. The reason is that it increases the cost of food to encourage excess production which must then be destroyed because the price is above what can be paid for the production. However, it means that farmers get a higher price per unit and do not have to compete as hard. Farming is a tough lobby in the world.

Answer 4

there is an old saying "give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish, and he is set for life"

by giving nations food, we basically destroy any production of food in that country (no one would bother growing or making food, because people can get it for free) and there will be no food tomorrow

A lot of these nations have problems with corruption, if you gave the food to the government, it would not go anywhere, further the government would and do in some cases prevent aid to the people they are supposed to be helping.

The third problem is distribution. People requiring food do not live in the same spot, they live all around the place. It is almost impossible to get aid to people, especailly in places like Africa where small villages are everywhere, most people do not live in a main centre, and often live in unpassable terran. There are not roads to these places.

If you people think that its politics causing these people to die, you are so wrong its not funny.

Africa needs roads, needs infrastructure, needs development, not aid. Food is often a perishable item.

It is an impossible task for rich nations to feed poorer nations, and they shouldn't have to. The only responsibility is to help them feed themselves, which i would admit not enough is being done.

Due to all the problems i outlined, if all the excess food was set aside for hungry people, it would likely make little or no different to their struggles.

I wish I had a better answer, all I have is the truth.

Answer 5

I think it's wrong to think of it as "I'm poor because other people are rich". Same thing with food. Homeless people in America aren't starving because Americans are throwing food away. They're starving because they either don't have the skills or the motivation to produce something of value to exchange for the food that someone else produces.

With regards to whether or not they feel bad about this, probably not. That being said, most people don't do every single possible thing they can to "make the world a better place", myself included. I am very conscious (and I hope other people are too) that when I put $4000 into my reitrement account, that the $4000 could also be spent on five years worth of food for someone hungry in Africa. I still choose to save for myself though. Is that wrong?

Answer 6

as alreedy pointed out that this problem is political.

as in example : when a person is not able to afford food, he/she will die of hunger/starvation. the problem herein does not lie with the availibity, but the purchasing power of the indivisual.

also during the great bengal famine, rice and wheat was widely available but was stocked up and not distributed. it was becuase the people did not have the purchasing power

Answer 7

supply and demand if you give free food to the homeless regular they won't try and really make the effort to work for food and decrease the demand for paid food. as some on the verge of no money will want it too as well as some cheapo's

Answer 8

why have so many millionaires when there are so many people in poverty. answer that's life.