Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

How the Top 5 Supermarkets Waste Food
April 18, 2010  |
http://www.alternet.org/investigations/146487/how_the_top_5_supermarkets_waste_food

 About 63% of supermarket waste is food. In a nation where millions are going 
hungry, a lot of that surplus food could feed people in need. But not every 
grocery chain cares.

Unemployment. Health care. The national debt. So many social issues take a 
lot to fix: experts, money, and lots of time. To add to a growing list of 
social issues, here’s another: 1 in 7 American households has trouble putting 
food on the table at some point during the year, according to a recent USDA 
report.

But in a nation where so many go hungry, a possible solution has emerged.

Grocery stores have lots of foods that need to be taken off shelves daily: 
stock that needs to rotate, surplus food like bananas that are starting to 
have brown spots, or refrigerated items that need to move for the new product 
coming in. Food products make up 63 percent of a supermarket’s disposed waste 
stream, according to a California Integrated Waste Management Board industry 
study. That’s approximately 3,000 lbs. thrown away per employee every year. 
The stores can’t sell the food, so they toss it in the compost or garbage.

Organizations and an army of volunteers -- called “food recovery” groups -- 
are stationed around the country, ready to transport that food from the 
stores to the people that need it most. Meats that are close to the sell-by 
date, for example, can be frozen and good for several more months.

If only it was that simple.

While most food retailers participate in some kind of food donation program, 
many stick to things like breads, cakes, and dented cans, while throwing away 
fruits, vegetables, meats, and other perishable food most needed by the 
hungry.

"Liability” and "bad press" are the oft-cited reasons food retailers give for 
not donating perishable food, but they're not good ones, say food recovery 
advocates.

President Clinton signed the Bill Emerson Federal Good Samaritan Food 
Donation Act in 1996, designed to protect those establishments and individual 
donors from criminal and civil liability, should any recipients become ill 
from food donation. State laws have been in place long before that which 
protect donors and encourage donation. None of the laws have ever been 
challenged.

The federal law protects all donations made in good faith. The only exception 
is “gross negligence” or intentional misconduct -- the plaintiff would have 
to prove that the company or individual, in donating food to the needy, was 
intentionally and knowingly engaging in conduct that was likely to harm 
another person. But realistically, what homeless person or shelter is going 
to sue for food poisoning?

“Bad press” is another poor excuse. Would shoppers really view a grocery 
chain as “bad” when, in the noble process of rescuing food from landfills, 
one needy person (or more) fell ill? Likely not.

Food recovery programs do take some time, energy and investment. But they're 
not impossible operations. Chains like Albertsons lead the way in training 
employees to hold food for local partners in the community rather than 
indiscriminately tossing foods that may be safe for consumption.

Arlene Mercer, founder of Long Beach-based food recovery organization Food 
Finders, says she sees a growing willingness among grocery stores to donate. 
“During this economy people are recognizing there is a food crisis,” she 
says, adding that the agencies Food Finders serve report a near-quadrupling 
of need from prior years.

Here they are, from best to worst: how the five largest food retailers in the 
U.S. handle perishable food waste:

rest of article at link