Waste
by Rachel Visser

An animation about food waste in grocery stores, done for my puppet animation class, junior year (2015).

Food waste is food that is lost or discarded. Food loss happens at many different stages of the supply chain, from production, to retail, to consumer homes. I chose to focus on food waste at the retail level. A new study released in February 2014 found: “In the United States, 31 percent—or 133 billion pounds—of the 430 billion pounds of the available food supply at the retail and consumer levels in 2010 went uneaten.”

Food waste has damaging effects on the environment because when food rots in landfills, it creates methane which is a greenhouse gas. Some food that is wasted is still edible and could be donated to people in need. According to a 2013 study, “49.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, including 33.3 million adults and 15.8 million children.”

A lot of food is wasted at the retail level because consumers demand huge fully stocked shelves and displays, but refuse to buy food (especially produce) that isn’t perfect looking.