About a week ago, we learned a that the ratio of starving earthicans to fed ones had reached an appalling 1 in 6. While we have always had issues with keeping everyone fed, this new figure reveals the foreboding reality of a global population with plenty of food but no way to distribute it equitably. Citizens of most classes of first world countries see food wasted everyday at home and at restaurants and feel terrible about it, but would lose their golf sweaters over actually doing something about it. Even if they wanted to, what could be done? You want me to mail the rest of this sandwich to Somalia?
Well, no not exactly. In fact, a lot of the food that ends up left on your plate would have been wasted anyway. It ended up there because of your demand for it, and your demand adjusts for that little bit you waste everyday. Isn’t it amazing what affluence can get you?
Maybe you didn’t consider yourself ‘affluent’ until now, but compared to a random sample from the third world, you’re not doing so bad. The unfortunate thing is that your lifestyle, and that of most of the first world, is designed to function by feeding off of the less lavish lifestyles of those in the countries that make your favorite things. It’s a system constructed with you on top. It was made for you and that’s why it’s so hard to really want things to change. At very least, lay off the desserts. They’re making your face look fat.
