John Fraschilla

    Every year about forty percent of food is wasted in the United States. Food waste is a major economic problem which causes many harmful threats such as: one of the major causes of greenhouse emission gases, it uses one-quarter of our fresh water supply, and landfills cannot be successfully decomposed. One way in which we can help in saving our supply of water, air quality and money is through food reclamation. Food reclaiming can be dealt with in two ways: the first and most important is to redistribute fresh edible food. The second is to use the unedible food to produce compost and renewable energy.

   The United States food system supply accounts for eighty percent of our energy consumed. The remains of food waste not turned into renewable energy can be used to produce compost which helps redirect methane gases to our soil that ventilates and doesn’t cause harm to the ozone layer like it does in the landfills. This energy and compost can be used in communities to help power buildings and create fresh soil that would supply organic farmers as well as help create local gardens.