Too Many People?

[Locksmith]

The planet is up to 7.8 Billion human inhabitants. What is your take on this? Are there too many people for the food that is produced and grown? Or is it simply a supply chain issue?

 

[Urban Homestead]

This is just my personal opinion, but I think it's a greed issue with a touch of laziness and an unwillingness to face even the mildest inconvenience. I think the pandemic showed us that our mammoth corporations aren't going to save the day, unless they can make a big profit from it. Food deserts would be the "new market" to conquer if there was money in it. And there aren't enough people who are willing to make sacrifices to make a change. We demand cheap food that's easy to get and in enormous amounts. It all factors into what drives the supply chain. I'm guilty of it too.

 

[jjp8182]

Supply chain issue (pretty sure there are still places/people throwing away perfectly good food). The confusion of a "best by date" with actual spoilage being but one aspect further complicating that problem.

Though the continual turning of farmland into housing developments probably doesn't help the matter either for at least a few reasons (one being the loss of farmland, the other being the increase in logistics to supply what would have once been local products).

 

[Thyme Flies By]

Having fewer people in the world would help the environment, so you might be onto something. Several countries have been at war for years and others have become destabilized thanks to coups and foreign interference. Surely those issues play a role too, if we're talking about food instability around the world.

@jjp8182, that is a major point of contention in my home. I don't like to throw out perfectly good food that is safe to eat just because the "sell-by date" or "best-by date" has come and gone.