Tuesday, December 15, 2009

"Dive!"ing into the Problem of Food Waste

At a time of massive food insecurity, more people are starting to pay attention to all the food that's being wasted. A recent study reports that Americans waste about 40% of their food. That's a lot of waste, especially when we consider how many people go hungry every day.

There are increased efforts to reduce food waste in schools and in communities, but some people are taking the matter into their own hands -- taking advantage of the waste to feed themselves, to feed others and to feed interest in changing the systems and habits that allow so much food to be tossed in dumpsters.

Jeremy Seifert has created the film Dive!, which looks at the practice of dumpster diving and exposes the culture of waste that our American society has generated. Against the backdrop of following around a group of dumpster divers in Los Angeles, Seifert asks lots of questions, such as why we generate such waste, why the extra food goes in the dumpster instead of to hungry people, why stores don't work harder to redirect their waste, and why people get arrested and hassled for trying to redirect other people's trash out of the waste stream.

Check out the trailer below, or see it at Dive!'s website.




~ Marsha

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2 comments:

Katie said...

It is one of the major problem in any place. We spend more foods without thinking the others that are willing to eat even those foods in the garbage. There are lot of people who need our help especially about foods. We must do something else about it.

IHE Staff said...

Thanks, Katie, for sharing your thoughts.