"Farmers weeding at noon, Sweat down the field soon. Who knows food on a tray Thanks to their toiling day?"
While growing up, the Chinese poem “悯农 (Mǐn nóng)”, which translates to "Toiling Farmers", was a crucial part of my childhood. In fact, the quote featured at the top of this article is the English translation of this poem! It was written by Tang Dynasty poet 李绅 (Lǐ shēn) to reflect on the hardships farmers face in their everyday lives. In modern times, Chinese parents teach this poem to their children at an early age to teach them about all the work that goes into agriculture, which would motivate them not to waste food.
Even in modern times, the message of the poem still applies. According to Shropshire farmer James Evans, the life of a farmer is incredibly laborious but also very rewarding. Even with modern technology, farming still requires a lot of knowledge, skills, and physical labor in order to care for crops and animals. A lot of these skills have to do with the manipulation of technology, and can be learned in agricultural college. Some of the technology used includes electric fences, which allow the soil and plants to recover by capturing some of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere and putting it back into the soil where it came from. As a result of their job, farmers often feel good because of the role they play in combating climate change.
While those of us that are fortunate enough to have enough food at home waste it, up to 50 million US citizens are projected to have food insecurity this year. Americans waste more than $218 billion of food each year, and on a smaller scale, an average American family of four throws out $1,600 a year in food. Think about it, all this money and food could be used to feed those of us that face food insecurity.
In addition to acknowledging food insecurity and the grueling lives of farmers, another reason why we should be more careful about the food we waste is because of the staggering damage it does to the planet we live on. What work farmers do to help keep the planet healthy and safe is undone by the sheer amount of food we waste. The water and energy that farmers used to produce food is being wasted when we throw it out. In fact, it is responsible for 11% of greenhouse gas emissions and also produces nitrogen pollution, leading to algae blooms and dead zones. Especially during the pandemic, food waste has skyrocketed due to more people getting takeout or eating at home. In fact, food takes up more space in US landfills than anything else, and that includes the waste from the fashion industry referenced in previous articles!
Some ways to combat food waste include laws that are currently being implemented in several states and even school systems. In 2015, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set a goal to reduce food waste by half by 2030. On a personal level, one of the biggest mistakes we make when purchasing food is misinterpreting expiration levels such as "best by" and "use by", or impulsively buying food without assessing the amount of food we truly need. We could also donate to food pantries so that we not only cut down our own waste but also help reduce food insecurity.
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