Food production is a complex industry that has its positive side, but also a negative side. Understanding where your food comes from is very important and this is one way to understand where it is processes into the food products you know and love. There are various types of jobs in the industry and knowing how they all work makes a wondering mind settle because you will know where most of your food comes from.
“Food production is the process of transforming raw ingredients into prepared food products” (“What is”). Simply, it “takes fruits, vegetables, and grains in their harvested forms as well as meat directly after the butchering process and processes these into the types of food products that are available for sale in supermarkets” (“What is”). There are also many other forms of descriptions based on what part you are in.
The food industry is one of the biggest in the world, if not the biggest. There’s so much emphasis on how our food is made. Unfortunately, “roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1.3 billion tonnes – gets lost or wasted” (Key facts). And “Food losses and waste amounts to roughly US $680 billion in industrialized countries and US $310 in developing countries” (Key facts).
Another look at what “Food manufacturing (processing) companies include bakery, dairy, fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry, seafood, snacks, and specialty” and include “canned, dehydrated, freeze dried, fresh cut, frozen, juice, organic, powder, and puree” (Food Processing).
The negative side of this complex industry is horrible because it just shows how wasteful humans are. One fact says, “The food currently wasted Europe could feed 200 million people” and “The food currently lost in Africa could feed 300 million people” (Key facts). Why are we so wasteful? If we weren’t, then we could feed so many more people. I think the world would be a different place if that was to be the case.
Celestine Chua writes about her experience of living in New York City and encountering all the food that is wasted. Her neighbor would buy groceries, then throw a lot of it out because he simply “didn’t want leftovers.” It was also because of the pre-packaged foods that he would buy – they would expire so quickly. She explains that different culture across the world are due to be responsible. Many people are not wanting leftovers because they don’t want ‘old food.’ (Chua).
Why is bad to waste? It happens so often, we most likely don’t think about it. The environmental costs are so damaging because it’s decreasing our rainforests, marine life, and the increase of pollution in our air/land/water could be reduced if we could cut down waste (Chua). It’s also depleting our resources. “…we are using them much quicker than they can be replaced” (Chua). Our oil industry has about 60 years left a 2005 study says (Chua). Chua also explains that “materialism and consumerism” are just part of the problem when it comes to the reason of why we waste. “More and more” and “the newer, the better” is not always the case (Chua).
In the points, please have a look at what you are wasting right now. What did you just throw away? Leftovers from yesterday? The restaurant food from two days ago? Just because it’s not new or hot doesn’t mean its bad. In any regard, the food industry should look at what they are doing do the world within their process. Since it’s complex, it’s difficult to see what industry specifically needs more attention.
References
Chua, Celestine. “Our Culture of Waste: Why We Should Stop Wasting (and How to Prevent Waste).” Personal Excellence, personalexcellence.co/blog/how-to-prevent-waste/.
“Food Processing.” Oregon Business Plan, www.oregonbusinessplan.org/industry-clusters/about-oregons-industry-clusters/food-processing/.
“Key Facts on Food Loss and Waste You Should Know!” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2017, www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/.
“What Is Food Production?” Reference, IAC Publishing, www.reference.com/food/food-production-48ddff22e0356c81#.
