Food, Food and more Food

There are so many ways that we have to be Nice Guys. We can be nice to each other, to the planet and to the other species that coexist with us. I do my best to practice all of these. As a family we compost, we have three composters going all of the time. We have five feral cats that we feed and try to take care of as well donating to the animal shelter. We volunteer around the community to help others. That is why it really frosts me when I find out that as a country we throw out 3000 pounds of food every minute of the day. Not rotten disgusting food but food that could well be saved and served.

This comes from ignorance and the fear of being sued. Can you imagine that the fear of being sued keeps us from helping people that need food? The amount of food that we throw out is staggering and there is no need of it. In 1996 President Clinton passed the Good Samaritan Act that "protects donors from civil and criminal liability should the product donated be in good faith later cause harm to the needy recipient." There is more to it than just that but this major part of his bill should be enough to make businesses stop and think before they toss.

Huge amounts of produce is thrown out because it has a spot or two. Sometimes it is thrown out just to make room for incoming stock. This could all be washed and checked and given to food pantries. Fruit that has bruises can be cooked, made into apple sauce or cobbler. Lettuce can be picked over, remove the outer leaves and you have plenty of good fibrous nutrition. When these products are thrown into our landfills it produces methane and ruins our atmosphere. Meats, fish and poultry have dates that are marked ahead so that they will not be sold close to the due date. This means that it is good for five or six days after the due date. Not only does this ruin the atmosphere as well but these are animals that have died for nothing. How can businesses in all good conscience allow this to happen. Some stores have a rack to sell due date items at a reduced cost, this is good but does not happen in many supermarkets. Citizens in some areas of the country have taken it upon themselves work with the store owners and rescue this food, bringing it to local food pantries to be given to the needy. This should be something that we should not even have to think about. Doing this is good in so many ways.

During big New England storms when we lose power, some of the stores empty all of the coolers and throw out everything. Why not open the doors and give it to people? Last year when we lost power I had to go to one of these stores. They were running on emergency lighting. They were offering coffee to people and the registers were running on a limited basis. It was nice that they did this for people but when I asked them what happened to the perishables, she looked kind of disgusted and told me that it was all thrown out. Very sad.

As a society were are smarter than this. We could help so many and our planet as well if we just became an intelligent Nice Guy society and fed our needy. Somehow, we must do this.