The developed world throws away huge quantities of food each year. The disposal of this adds to the greenhouse effect and so contributes to climate change. This is in part responsible for flooding and droughts, which cause crop failures is less well developed countries. So, the food we throw away may be a cause of starvation in some areas of Africa and China, and in particular at the current time, Somalia.
According to the University of Arizona 40-50% of edible food in US never gets eaten. It is thrown away. This costs an estimated US$43 billion every year. The figures for UK are similar and it is estimated that around 35% of food is wasted in the same way.
World Famine Hotspots
The ongoing famine in Somalia, in Western Africa shows no sign of improvement. There have been food riots in the countries capital city of Mogadishu and people have ended up being shot simply because they demanded to be fed. Government troops are shooting people whose only crime is trying to get food. Shops are being looted for food because the countries currency has been changed. Old style notes are no longer accepted by stores.
People either can't afford to buy food, or their money is being refused as the government changes the currency. Imagine the uproar there would be if the US Government suddenly decided that dollars were no longer legal tender and they simply printed different bills without exchanging the old ones. What would happen if the UK Government stopped people spending their pounds and invented a new currency, saying that any money people had was no longer any use.
Men, women and children rioted in the streets of Mogadishu because there was food in the shops but they were forced to starve. Shopkeepers boarded up their stores for fear of looters. People with handfuls of the old currency demanded the right to buy food but gun fire was the response they got.
In Mogadishu a kilo of corn meal cost 12 cents in January and by the end of April it has risen to 25 cents, but these city dwellers are the lucky ones. Parts of Somalia have suffered severe drought for more than ten years and in the rural areas millions are dying from hunger and thirst.
All this goes on while we throw away food that goes out of date before we can eat it. We should all be thoroughly ashamed.
