About 50 percent of food in the United States is wasted. Let that sink in. Half of all food produced for the country actually gets eaten. The rest of it—over 60 million tons each year—ends up in landfills. That’s the weight of four bags of flour per person, per month. Rotting food emits methane, a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to a warming climate.
And landfilled food is not the only environmental concern. “It’s not just what you buy or consume, but the resources used to put it on your plate,” says Celise Vaughn, a vice president at food and product packaging company Sealed Air. “When food is wasted, we lose everything that went into producing and transporting that food.” Those wasted resources include freshwater, land, and energy.
All those wasted resources have a significant financial impact too. Americans spend more than $160 billion on food that’s never eaten. On average, a four-person family spends around $2,000 each year on food that they never eat.
There are many ways to reduce food waste. People in the food packaging industry are working to develop products that extend shelf life. The goal is to cut down on the amount of food that’s tossed after it leaves farms and factories.
Jonathan Deutsch is a professor of culinary arts and food science and oversees the Drexel University Food Lab. He says, “All food packaging is designed to market, explain the contents, protect the quality, and ensure the safety of the product.” When that packaging keeps food safe and appealing for a longer time, less waste occurs.
Different Packaging Needs
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2020 من Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2020 من Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.