{"id":7290,"date":"2022-02-21T12:45:01","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T12:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7290"},"modified":"2022-02-21T12:45:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T12:45:01","slug":"billions-of-animals-are-slaughtered-every-year-just-to-be-wasted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7290","title":{"rendered":"Billions of animals are slaughtered every year \u2014 just to be wasted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Around one-third<\/a> of food produced in the US is never consumed, ending up in landfills as waste.”
…
“According to USDA data from 2010, Americans throw out 26 percent of meat, poultry, and fish<\/a> at the retail and consumer level. Harish Sethu, a data scientist and author of the blog Counting Animals<\/a>, says America\u2019s meat waste problem means we\u2019re raising about a billion chickens, more than 100 million other land animals (mostly turkeys, pigs, and cows), as well as capturing around 25 billion fish and 15 billion shellfish (mostly shrimp), only to have them wind up in a landfill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the data is over a decade old, the situation is likely worse now, as US meat production<\/a> rose 10.3 percent from 2011 to 2018 while food waste only decreased by 1 percent<\/a>.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u201cA lot of people think their food is bad when it\u2019s actually still perfectly good to eat,\u201d Dana Gunders, executive director of food waste nonprofitReFED, told me. \u201cThe dates on food are really an indicator of when something is of top quality or it\u2019s freshest, but they\u2019re not telling you the food is bad or that you can\u2019t eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her general rule of thumb? \u201cIf it looks fine, smells fine, and tastes fine, it\u2019s okay to eat.\u201d She encourages readers to visit SaveTheFood.com<\/a>, a consumer guide from environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, for more information.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Can\u2019t eat it soon? Put it in the freezer. \u201cFreezers are a magic pause button,\u201d Gunders said.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u201cA lot of people are in the habit of freezing meat but you can freeze milk if you\u2019re going away on vacation \u2014 it may separate a little but it\u2019ll be okay. Eggs you can freeze if you crack them out of their shell and scramble them but don\u2019t cook them.\u201d When it comes to cheese, it\u2019s best to shred it before freezing and then use it in cooking after thawing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, plan ahead. \u201cIf you can, sketch out an accurate plan of your week and when you\u2019ll eat at home, and have that in mind when you\u2019re shopping,\u201d Gunders said. \u201cThat\u2019s really critical because shopping is where you commit to the food regardless of whether you eat it or not.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Reducing waste at the farm level is vital because if meat companies can reduce their mortality rates \u2014 the percent of farm animals that die before they can be slaughtered \u2014 then they can conceivably reduce the number of animals they need to breed in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest impact can be made in the chicken industry, simply because of its scale.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Grocery stores, restaurants, and food manufacturers can also do a lot to reduce food waste.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/22890292\/food-waste-meat-dairy-eggs-milk-animal-welfare<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Around one-third of food produced in the US is never consumed, ending up in landfills as waste.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“According to USDA data from 2010, Americans throw out 26 percent of meat, poultry, and fish at the retail and consumer level. Harish Sethu, a data scientist and author of the blog Counting Animals, says America\u2019s meat waste problem means we\u2019re raising about a billion chickens, more than 100 million other land animals (mostly turkeys, pigs, and cows), as well as capturing around 25 billion fish and 15 billion shellfish (mostly shrimp), only to have them wind up in a landfill.
\nWhile the data is over a decade old, the situation is likely worse now, as US meat production rose 10.3 percent from 2011 to 2018 while food waste only decreased by 1 percent.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“\u201cA lot of people think their food is bad when it\u2019s actually still perfectly good to eat,\u201d Dana Gunders, executive director of food waste nonprofit ReFED, told me. \u201cThe dates on food are really an indicator of when something is of top quality or it\u2019s freshest, but they\u2019re not telling you the food is bad or that you can\u2019t eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her general rule of thumb? \u201cIf it looks fine, smells fine, and tastes fine, it\u2019s okay to eat.\u201d She encourages readers to visit SaveTheFood.com, a consumer guide from environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, for more information.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Can\u2019t eat it soon? Put it in the freezer. \u201cFreezers are a magic pause button,\u201d Gunders said.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“\u201cA lot of people are in the habit of freezing meat but you can freeze milk if you\u2019re going away on vacation \u2014 it may separate a little but it\u2019ll be okay. Eggs you can freeze if you crack them out of their shell and scramble them but don\u2019t cook them.\u201d When it comes to cheese, it\u2019s best to shred it before freezing and then use it in cooking after thawing.<\/p>\n

Lastly, plan ahead. \u201cIf you can, sketch out an accurate plan of your week and when you\u2019ll eat at home, and have that in mind when you\u2019re shopping,\u201d Gunders said. \u201cThat\u2019s really critical because shopping is where you commit to the food regardless of whether you eat it or not.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Reducing waste at the farm level is vital because if meat companies can reduce their mortality rates \u2014 the percent of farm animals that die before they can be slaughtered \u2014 then they can conceivably reduce the number of animals they need to breed in the first place.<\/p>\n

The biggest impact can be made in the chicken industry, simply because of its scale.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Grocery stores, restaurants, and food manufacturers can also do a lot to reduce food waste.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[725,1552],"class_list":["post-7290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-food","tag-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7291,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290\/revisions\/7291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}