why conservation of food is necessary
Answers
Food preservation refers to the conservation of food for future consumption via methods that kill or inhibit the growth of microorganisms. ... Chemicals, which can be preservatives that prevent food from spoiling. Drying, which gets rid of the water source most microorganisms need to thrive.
If you went and looked at your fridge right now, what would you see? For at least some of us, there would be moldy salsa or pasta sauce in the back of the fridge, wilted carrots in the drawer, or milk that’s gone sour.
It’s a common tale in the U.S.—and sadly, much of the food in our fridges end up getting trashed: Americans waste around 133 billion pounds of useable food every year, according to the USDA.
In The Walrus, Canadian writer Sasha Chapman chronicled her own experience with food waste—as well as her investigation into why we throw out as much as we do. She shares the insights of Martin Gooch of Value Chain Management International, who tells her:
“Volume is king,” he continues. “There is a desire to reduce the cost of food by selling more, and a consumer desire to buy more for less. We’ve made price a key factor in whether we buy one food over another.” We may be able to buy more for less, but if we’re throwing out more of that food, we’re wasting more dollars, too.
It’s not just how much we buy that’s a problem—it’s what we buy, too. Consumers have come to expect their produce to be pristine: unblemished, perfectly round tomatoes with just the right sheen, or long straight carrots (better yet, “baby carrots” that have been hewn to a fun and easy-to-eat shape). Yet our cosmetic standards for produce mean that much of what’s grown never makes it to the supermarket: it’s rejected simply because it looks ugly, has a few blemishes, or may be a bit too old. NPR also notes that many times, things are discarded because they wouldn’t last the cross-country journey from farm to store.