Is It Time to Make Food Waste Illegal?

I'm just thinking about how grocery stores and places like Starbucks will throw away good food at the end of the day.

Does that need to be?

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What I am trying to say is that while people are dying hungry all over the place, at the same time, tons of edible food is thrown into the garbage. It simply does not seem to make sense. Why can't people figure out a way to get all that food to the people who need it?

Now, I am not saying this is the easiest of fixes.

There are obstacles, and rightly so, food safety is no trivial matter, and no one would want to put people at risk of illness. Then, of course, there is just the whole logistics thing of how to get it from A to B before it spoils.

But I don't think it's out of our league. We have solved some much more difficult problems before, right? Why not this one?

Some places, which I read about, do try and take on the problem at hand. For example, in France, supermarkets are legally prohibited from throwing away any good food, and instead, they donate it to food banks and charities.

Isn't that cool?

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Not that we necessarily should do what France did, every country is different, and what worked there may not work here. However, I just felt this was a tremendous starting point for conversation.

What's on my mind is this: make it a law wherein grocery stores and food establishments don't dispose of food if it won't be consumed because they have to give it away. We can start pairing businesses up with food banks and homeless shelters so we know the food will reach those who need it.

Of course, we would have to iron out a few of those details.

For instance, we might offer tax breaks to participating businesses so that it isn't too expensive for them either. And of course, we'd have to create some kind of regulations that make sure all the food being donated was still good to eat.

I can imagine issues in bringing businesses to court for selling donated food if someone consumes it and then falls ill. We could likely get them some legal immunity, provided they follow a few guidelines for ensuring that the food stays safe.

Not that I'm saying it would end world hunger overnight or anything, but I think it really would make a big difference to many, and in the process, reduce food waste too, which is good for the environment.

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So, how does everybody feel about this?

Should food waste be illegal now, by forcing businesses to donate their leftover food?

Or is there a couple of problems with that that I am not seeing?

I'd love to hear what you think about that. Maybe we can volley off of each other a bit and find some super creative solutions. After all, no one should go hungry with perfectly good food being thrown into the garbage.

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