I worked at McDonald’s one summer in college… used to carry out the bags of mcchickens and shit to throw away after shift. It wasn’t hard to toss the bag over the dumpster and out the back of the enclosure for later collection…if one was so inclined. McDonald’s fed me that summer, and it wasn’t the fucking pennies they were paying me doing it.
We as a species have all the resources to create a leisure society. We choose not to.
because we must maintain an artificial scarcity or profits will suffer. Wont anyone think of the shareholders?!
heaviest /s
The problem is that they also destroy any attempts at creating a pipeline that such food can go to say homeless shelters, shelters for abused people, homeless people, etc. They’d rather people starve to death to make their money than see people fed. That’s why we cannot live with an executive class in charge of everything.
The manager at my local grocery store once almost broke his neck slipping on ice chasing a homeless man stealing a bundle of wood. This sort of deranged mentality runs deep and is selected for in the corporate structure.
In the US, we have a law that prevents lawsuits to companies that donates expired food, protecting them from liability.
Loads of companies donate their food. Especially bakeries.
While I’m sure many small privately owned companies are donating their old food, large organizations like national grocers and fast food chains have standing policies that prohibit franchisees from donating any food.
Donated food is free food. People who get free food are not paying customers. They’ll say they’re worried about a lawsuit, but what they’re actually trying to accomplish is maintaining the absolute maximum number of paying customers.
Not fully true. Quiet a few larger stores donate. I’ve personally watched companies take food close to expiration and have the food bank pick it up so it doesn’t go to waste. There are already laws in many areas that require it as well. We aren’t perfect. But we are getting better at this.
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
In all seriousness, I’ve never read this (or anything by Steinbeck for that matter), and this made me want to. My only worry is that the whole thing will be a massive downer.
I’ve also heard that East of Eden is very good.
I’ve noticed more and more old white guys are wearing top hats and monocles lately. I think they’re finally making their move now that they’ve picked a uniform. /s
- In France supermarkets have to donate food about to expire, they can’t throw it away
- Eu is making a law that forbids companies to incinerate/ throw away clothes
In the US, we have a law that prevents lawsuits to companies that donates expired food, protecting them from liability.
Loads of companies donate their food. Especially bakeries.
Yet you’ll occasionally still hear store managers try to say shit like, “we can’t give it away because we might get sued”.
Due to fast fashion, the world is not suffering for clothes. The clothes are crap quality, but there’s more than plenty for everyone.
We have the means to end every form of inequality out there. We would just have to come together as world to make it happen. But no. We’re basically monkeys with nukes.
Which is why, as a species, we deserve everything coming our way.
We’re basically monkeys with nukes.
I don’t have any nukes and i’m not a monkey, talk for yourself
A tragic misstep in evolution.
Glad to see another person who recognizes that, at a basic level, this is something ingrained in our species. I wish I understood where greed originates within our nature and how to eliminate it, but history demonstrates that this has always and will always be part of who we are.
I think Terminator 2 put it best: We’re programmed to destroy ourselves.
That said, at least here in my own small sphere, I see some lovely examples of kindness. There’s a donut shop nearby that puts all the unsold stuff in a box at the end of the day and leaves it out for the homeless, or really, anyone that walks by and wants to take one.
You should read Mutual Aid: a Factor in Evolution by Piotr Kropotkin.
Things do not need to be this way, and it is not “in our nature”.
Survival of the fittest, i.e. individual competition, is not the only way organisms evolve (and then thrive) in the world. And that includes, but it’s not limited to, humans.
We’re programmed to destroy ourselves.
That’s how well capitalism has succeeded in making us believe its definition of human nature as a greedy creature is the only one definition. As if it is unquestionably true. Capitalism is a system that eventually destroys itself, that is what you are witnessing. Human nature is not defined as such. We are codependent rational animals, programmed for sharing and caring. Not to be greedy.
I’d love to believe that, but I’ve read too many history books.
I recommend you to read Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: A Hopeful History. And David Graeber’s the Dawn of Everything.
Not that their arguments end all discussion on this. But the clear-cut definition of humans as inherently greedy creatures is also not set in stone as capitalism/liberalism likes us to believe.
It would be quite the philosophical revolution if we had a final definition of human nature. So no, we cannot say: looking at history we must conclude that humans are inherently greedy, no further discussion.
If you find that comforting, then great. Genuinely happy for you.
Individuals fall to temptation all the time. The issue isn’t humans, it’s the shape of our structures. If only a handful of people are the lynch pin to everything, they’re eventually gonna be corrupted by the power. Spreading the power out and not allowing it to coalesce is the answer.
The humans with spread out power weren’t bombastic, so they make for uninteresting reads of history. But those stories are out there, of communities quietly thriving in all times.
30-40%?? That number seems unrealistic.
Feels like a 78% of percentages are made up on the spot kind of thing.
30-40% is accurate, at least in that it’s difficult to measure and different organizations may have different figures. The 30-40% comes from the USDA. https://www.usda.gov/about-food/food-safety/food-loss-and-waste/food-waste-faqs
Wow, that number is so high I actually just didn’t believe it. Thanks for the link.
might change this year. Wheat crop likely to be smallest since 1970.
With fertilizer prices and climate change, we are going to experience something the whole world has not seen in a long time. This is going to suck…
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all.
No, the worst is animals being tortured for a lifetime and murdered just to end up in a trash can.
Oh shit. I actually need to read that. One of the ones school was correct to try and push on us, I see.
This reminds me of how I need to read Steinbeck, especially Grapes of Wrath
I’m going to keep posting it until it hopefully no longer applies.
Keep on using tiktok and nothing will be ever done about this problem, it will get worst.
If you think there are enough people on lemmy to end capitalism, than you are very silly. You have to go to where people are.
Sure tt is the reason for food being thrown out. Problem solved
Food is thrown out because profits drive this society. tiktok is a big piece of the system. You will not change how things work through this proprietary centralized platform, someone else who has different goals than yours owns it and has total control over it.
Yup. Worked a 7-11 for a few years; anything not sold is written off and thrown out. If you’re caught taking it home, or giving it away; immediate termination, with cause.
The reason I was given is ‘conflict of interest’. The employees decide how much to make; if they’re allowed to take it/give it away, they may choose to make extra to ensure they/their friends get freebies. Bullshit.
Also things supermarkets consider “damaged goods”.
4-pack of coke, but 1 can is missing.
Cans “cannot be sold separately”, therefore it’s trash now.
???In the UK I have seen quite a few shops will just heavily discount it in that case.
Aldi sells wonky carrots. Costs fuck all and you get a huge amount. Oh no the carrot has a slight bend in it. Buy them at £0.53 per kg. It shows that a lot of people really don’t care about their veg looking pristine. The idea that produce must be perfect to sell is a lie.
Then why is there always so much fucking waste
Because their ‘weekly forcast’ software is garbage and the employees aren’t paid enough to GAF.
Because people WERE stealing too much and taking advantage. Like I get it your the edge case you’ll never do that, but most people in the roles do. File that under"why we can’t have nice things". Small businesses have to implement this all the time. It’s a huge loss of income and makes inventory a royal pain in the ass with sudden shortages because employees don’t record what they’re stealing.
One of the shops near me throws out so much fresh bakery stuff every day that after collecting and redistributing it to poor single mothers and refugees there’s still enough left over to provide me and 4 others with breakfast and lunch every day. Businesses overproduce and then throw away the excess to protect their profits, it has nothing to do with inventory.
Them days I was living off 10-20 bucks a week, the “bread man” saved me. One grocery around here (place has a union I might add) would send all the weeks leftover bakery items around in a van, making a stop at the rooming house I lived. The fucking bread man was such a welcome sight!
Small restaurants are more likely to allow employees to grab food at the end of the day or even implement family meals. It helps with team cohesion, morale, and when normalized means it doesn’t fuck with inventory counts because employees do record what they take. The 12 years I was with my ex spouse they worked in restaurants and were constantly coming home with food half the time it was the owners actively giving it to employees. The people working those places knew not to take advantage of it otherwise they’d lose that trust and the perks.
We could live in a world where big corps decide to let a little control go and treat their employees like humans and us and the corps would be fine. Instead of locking everything down we can just normalize human behavior and a base level of decency and people will respond positively. “Never take anything or you’re fired” leads to people being sneaky and now the books are all fucked plus morale is trashed, “you can grab a reasonable amount but write it down and don’t take anything that’s high demand or hard to replace” and now the books and employees are happy and you can roll it into business expenses
A family meal is an accounted for expense. Restaurants are already ruthlessly low margins. This costs real money 🤷♂️.
My brother came home with a ten(or more I dont remember) pound bag of bacon one time from the resturant he worked at…15 years ago, the place is still open today.
They guy stealing liquor got fired, but my brother and ex both worked there and would come home nightly with leftover pizza and all kinds of things the owners would let the employees take. Its one of the best and most popular resturants in my state. Had another roommate at another pizza joint (also still open 15 years later) who would bring us home white pies nearly every night. This practice seems pretty fuckin common with small owned companies, for corpo trash, yeah, they throw it out. Mom and pop take care though.
Less uh, legal example:
Hell when I worked at the Travel Center, there was a gas station, a resturant, and a Burgerking. I worked in the gas station where the manager himself encouraged fhe five finger discount, and we’d trade the resturant cooks energy drinks for meals. Same With BK, though less often. We couldnt trade with the Dunkin in there. I was young, but it was a whole thing, “we cant trade with them” I forgot why. All these places are still there. I became homeless while working there and was sleeping in a coworkers car on the night shift. I’ll never forget the night he brought me out a giant plate of mashed potatoes and greenbeans for dinner. fucking blessed yo
Even if you weren’t spouting bullshit, who cares? Fuck those people, who cares, let them have the food.
I absolutely reject your viewpoint, and I’m tired of pretending its okay to think this way, fuck you.
Keeping people desperate is by design.
Makeshit0p is a very spot on username for you.
The correct solution is to log it and adjust purchasing quantities based on the data. Allow giving it away, but log it as if it was wasted.
I agree. You can do both. Have the rules and build a meal into each night. Two separate actions.
Capitalists are ghouls
Canada is pretty similar. So much dumped instead of priced to sell
But then people juat wait and buy it cheaper.
So you’d rather toss it? Nice.
Those that want It that day, if the whole lot is fresh pay the regular, when a week goes by and it will be “expired” some new stock will come in, so now you still have new choice or discounted on older stock. Its a win win and doesn’t do the 40% spoilage we have now.
Its how it used to be decades ago when a human was actually placing price tags on items.
I also see this model work in sports shops that do consignment. You drop off you mountain bike, they price at $600, each month the price drops 5-10% until an agreed minimum. This way they rotate stock quicker, seller will eventually get a sale, and the buyer either anaps it up when they see the item to ensure nobody get is later. You could wait a month and hope for price reduction, but there’s a chance of somebody else grabbing it.
Seems to work pretty well here in the UK. Shops reduce stuff near the end of its self life to reduce how much is wasted.
You can wait if you want it cheaper, but you are getting lower quality food near the end of its self life. Not everyone wants that. It works really well, though more could still be done to reduce waste.
I have heard of mystery boxes of end of life products being done before, love the idea but haven’t seen it implemented locally and they don’t normally keep it up for long. Shame really. Could make for a good stew, just throw all the things in.
