Hellyeahfuckyeah

Robert Roy Britt, Editorial Director, Live Science
November 26th, 2009

U.S. residents are wasting food like never before.

While many Americans feasted on turkey and all the fixings yesterday, a new study finds food waste per person has shot up 50 percent since 1974. Some 1,400 calories worth of food is discarded per person each day, which adds up to 150 trillion calories a year.

The study finds that about 40 percent of all the food produced in the United States is tossed out.

Meanwhile, while some have plenty of food to spare, a recent report by the Department of Agriculture finds the number of U.S. homes lacking “food security,” meaning their eating habits were disrupted for lack of money, rose from 4.7 million in 2007 to 6.7 million last year.

About 1 billion people worldwide don’t have enough to eat, according to the World Food Program.

Growing problem

The new estimate of food waste, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is a relatively straightforward calculation: It’s the difference between the U.S. food supply and what’s actually eaten, which was estimated by using a model of human metabolism and known body weights.

The result, from Kevin Hall and colleagues at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is about 25 percent higher than similar estimates made in recent years.

Last year, an international group estimated that up to 30 percent of food - worth about $48.3 billion - is wasted each year in the United States. That report concluded that despite food shortages in many countries, plenty of food is available to feed the world, it just doesn’t get where it needs to go.

Previous calculations were typically based on interviews with people and inspections of garbage, which Hall’s team figures underestimates the waste.

Related problems

ScienceNOW, an online publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reports that food waste occurs at the manufacturing level and in distribution, but more than half is wasted by consumers, according to a separate study earlier this year by Jeffery Sobal, a sociologist at Cornell University.

Meanwhile, Hall and colleagues say a related and growing problem, obesity, may be fueled by the increased availability of food in this country and the incessant marketing of it. All that extra food is bad for the environment, too.

Addressing the oversupply of food in the United States “could help curb to the obesity epidemic as well as reduce food waste, which would have profound consequences for the environment and natural resources,” the scientists write. “For example, food waste is now estimated to account for more than one quarter of the total freshwater consumption and more than 300 million barrels of oil per year representing about 4 percent of the total U.S. oil consumption.”

Holy fuck, I love Ben Gibbard.

Well, you didn’t wake up this morning
‘Cause you didn’t go to bed
You were watching the whites of your eyes turn red
The calendar on your wall
Is ticking the days off
You’ve been reading some old letters
You smile and think how much you’ve changed
All the money in the world
Couldn’t buy back those days

You pull back the curtains
And the sun burns into your eyes
You watch a plane flying
Across a clear blue sky

This is the day
Your life will surely change
This is the day
When things fall into place

You could’ve done anything if you’d wanted
And all your friends and family think that you’re lucky
But the side of you they’ll never see
Is when you’re left alone with the memories
That hold your life together like glue

You pull back the curtains
And the sun burns into your eyes
You watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky

This is the day
Your life will surely change
This is the day
When things fall into place
This is the day
Your life will surely change

I made apple cider today. It is delicious. But I was left with about 2 cups of extra pulp that I knew I had to be able to do something with. So I did. I made what I will call apple cider bread. Basically it is banana bread, but minus the bananas, and plus apple pulp.

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=29274.0

This recipe, except 2 cups of apple pulp, or pomace, as it is called by people who want to be fancy. Also, you would want to add an extra 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk, because with 1/4 cup, the batter is very dry.

1. I only met you for one weekend, but I thought you were really awesome and I would like to spend some more time with you and get to know you. You seem thoroughly interesting and the weekend you were here, you effectively intrigued me. Come back.

2. You…are hot. Mind-bogglingly so. And it is not fair. Not only are you stunning, but you are intelligent too. I cannot handle this.

3. I don’t miss you, because you’re an asshole, and an idiot, and a hypocrite, and a liar, and a criminal, and…oh god I could go on. I do, however, miss being completely and totally happy in a relationship. I haven’t had that with anyone but you…for some reason.

4. I once thought I was in love with you. GOD WAS I WRONG. I rest assured that you will die alone, because you do not know how to treat people.

5. I’m glad what happened between us did happen. I don’t know how or why, but it left me changed for the best. I feel like a weight has been lifted since I saw you, and I still haven’t fully comprehended how that happened.

6. I used to think you were a big asshole; now I have this strange affection for you that I can’t put a label on. I realize that doesn’t make sense.

7. For a while I wanted to kill you in your sleep. Now I guess I kind of like you :)

8. You’re a cool kid and I really like you.

9. Ohhh my god. You are a crazy person and I love it. I was not expecting that at all. It makes everything interesting and that is fine by me.

10. I realize you’re changing a lot lately, and I can’t help but refuse to take it at face value. I keep thinking that there is something wrong in your life that would cause this. Maybe I’m wrong? I just want to know because you are kind of starting to worry me.

11. I think you’re a dumb cunt, but it’s okay, because I am at least 100% smarter and hotter than you. Have fun with my leftovers…again!

Out of sight,
but never
out of mind; you were
a foundation
upon which thoughts, hopes, dreams
could be built.
You won’t come back,
and that’s alright;
I got what I needed from you—
a goodbye.
So as I calmly settle into
a life of acceptance—
of quietly dealing with my fate;
of burying emotions deep within
what passes for a heart.
Here’s to being content,
but never quite happy.
Like a chicken
going to slaughter—
first kicking and screaming,
then docile and hopeless.
I will go quietly
into unhappiness.

For just a moment,
could we be ourselves again?
Those wide-eyed innocent
kids, so in love
with life, art, the world;
with each other.
Before we were so cold,
so angry and hateful.
When did we become so
tired and jaded?
How did we get so old?
High rent, low pay
and long hours.
Spending time together
in electric silence, punctuated
by commercials and
smoke and unreal reality.
Is this our reality?
Is this who we have become?
Please, can we just pretend,
just for one night, pretend
that we’re okay?
Bring our hearts
back to life.
Laugh like children again.

Technology killed love,
And severely maimed social interaction.
The most important words that should
Be said, can never venture past your lips,
Left only to be expressed by our
Emotionless fingertips.
The sound of a beating heart, replaced
By static electricity in your chest,
(I’m sorry, you’re breaking up)
Kisses have been condensed into
Cute digital faces, and true laughter
Can now be expressed in three simple letters:
L-O-L.
Cellular phones attached to your hands and ears,
Like malignant cancerous growths;
This world has become filled with
Vicious monsters with blue teeth.
A concrete forest with streetlight stars;
Make a wish.
I give you my heart, and you suck
All of the electricity out of it.