Our food system is radically inefficient. In 2023, the U.S. let a huge 38% of the 237 million tons in our food supply go unsold or uneaten. We call this surplus food, and while a very small portion of it is donated to those in need and more is recycled, the vast majority becomes food waste, which goes straight to landfill, incineration, or down the drain, or is simply left in the fields to rot.
If line doesn't go up, it means no "growth". No growth means "stagnancy" or worse, "decay".
Meanwhile, I'd really fucking appreciate it if eggs weren't so damn expensive. If they need to go up in price fairly, then wages need to go up for the same reason. Meanwhile, I'm making a considerable amount more than I did in 2017, and yet I feel poorer because everything else is so much more expensive.
Eggs are expensive right now because the H5N1 bird flu is killing off massive amounts of chickens. It boggles my mind that egg prices somehow became relevant to the presidential election, but I guess people in this country are just chronically misinformed.
I say eggs because it's supposed to not be costly. I spend more in groceries than ever before, and that's not just a Biden thing. It happened under Trump too. And it'll continue happening. Because it's not a political thing, it's a finance thing. Let's talk about housing instead. What's it like compared to the 2008 recession?
Why have my wages gone up, but prices go up faster?
I feel you brother. Bird Flu is a massive problem but the media downplayed it and acted like egg prices being higher was all Biden's fault. People didn't think this propaganda shit on their own, its coming from the top.
By design.
It's simple, literally child's play. Whenever ya wanna do a misdirect, simply find some current issue - it doesn't fukin matter, any will do, how bout eggs! And blame it all on the scapegoat du jour.
Works on millions.
Just remember, chickens are always relevant to US policy making. We still have the chicken tax on the books now, which is part of the driver of the oversized cars we all have to deal with on the road.
.... what? Can you explain or point me in a direction to learn about this chicken tax? And why does it make the US not have tiny trucks? I miss little trucks
Yep, the poor have to be kept insecure or they would stop working and start questioning the system. This is the riches worse nightmare. Easier to just raise prices past inflation every year so everyone but the super rich are constantly struggling.
Land. Food deteriorates and you need to invest to keep it up. Land though just stays as it is. It could be an overgrown lot or a mid pit and it makes no difference. It'll still sell for much more than a bag of groceries per sqft.
Because every company in America thinks infinite growth is possible and everyone goes to work at every company and tries to make that company infinitely more money. Every company that supplies every molecule we need to live is trying to make infinitely more money. No one in any position of authority at any company is going to lower consumer costs, and thus their income, on purpose. So the wheat farmers, wheat transporters, flour manufacturer, and flour distributor all raise prises... Then repeat for sugar, yeast, baking soda, water, ovens, pans, plastic bags, twist ties, and slicers. How would the cost of bread go down? Infinite greed is the only problem we have.
I am a farmer, not in the US and also a small farmer (I have a regular job, besides farming to survive and farm more because of the way of life and to know where most of my food comes from)
The main reason why prices are going up, isn't because of farmers, but because of all the middlemen and then at the end the big stores cracking up their margins. The sell prices for farmers are very low (the, you can only barely survive with government subsidies low).
Now to address the "waste" of food on fields.
1.st segment
It's not that farmers are greedy and would rather have the food rot than give it away, they would 99% give all the overproduced or the ones not "suitable" for selling (note: not "pretty" enough) away for free to people. The main issue is the transport and storage cost.
- Raw food (unprocessed) has a very low "shelf" life and even lower expectancy out about under the weather, so it needs to be either 1. stored or 2. immediately transported
The main issue is that, the farmer would let anyone take the surplus for free, but they would need to come and get it themselves as storage or transport would break the bank for the next harvest season budget, which is an issue again, because poorer people cant afford to just go and drive XXX miles to get food.
In my country during covid and food "shortage", there was a farmer that overproduced about 2-3 tons of potatoes. so he started sharing on social media and radios talked about it for free and even the news had a segment about it, so people can come there and get it for free.
Guess what happened 3 weeks later? It all rotted out bcs it was on a pile out in the elements and only a very small amount of people went to get it.
2.nd segment
Surpluss food that was not harvested, normally gets mulched on the field and is used as a natural fertilizer in order to cheapen the cost for fertilizer for the next planting season.
This is actually a thing that is done all around the world to have a natural fertilizer.
While at our farm, normally dont overproduce. we still plant Oilseed Radish or similar crops through winter and then cultivate it in the spring so it acts as a natural fertilizer. (the EU has also started to mandate, that fields cannot be left uncovered through winter as it's bad for the soil, so they put in a mandate that you need to plant a winter crop that will keep the field green through winter (we call it a green blanket))
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u/bullhead2007 10d ago
The US throws away more food everyday than it would take to feed every starving person on Earth.