XPost: alt.philosophy, alt.sci.sociology   
      
   Our garbage...our food waste...would almost certainly be   
   enough to end world hunger. I feel confident that every   
   state, and maybe even every major city, produces   
   millions of pounds of food waste every single day. That   
   wasted food goes to feed rats and other vermin we would   
   rather *not* feed in dumps and landfills, while humans we   
   would rather feed are starving. Much of the nutrition which   
   makes life possible--any amount or form of which is rare   
   and treasured to hungry people all over this planet--has   
   become nothing but a problem to get rid of for those of   
   us fortunate enough to have the "problem". Even if only   
   a small percentage of the people who have the problem   
   were to participate in organized group efforts, it's almost   
   certain that a large percentage of world hunger and   
   starvation could be reduced or eliminated. The garbage   
   from McDonald's alone could save how many human   
   lives?   
      
   How to do it? Organization and agreement to commit to   
   the projects would be a first step. What to commit to would   
   of course be a necessary consideration. How to store,   
   transfer and sanitize the waste food would be some of the   
   biggest obstacles to overcome. Making regular use of   
   food grinders, dehydrators, possibly crushers of some sort,   
   probably UV sanitizing methods, and packaging systems   
   would be required on both the private and commercial   
   participant level. Collection and distribution would   
   be on a bigger scale, and would require properly developed   
   business level organizations and facilities in order to make   
   productive use of what so many of us consider to be waste.   
   Some sort of incentive to participate besides simply providing   
   life for other humans would probably also be required, or else   
   systems such as that would have been established and   
   working for years already.   
      
   How to begin? The first thing would be to accept the idea   
   that it would be possible, and could be made practical and   
   maybe even beneficial to those who are willing to participate.   
   It would probably have to begin on a small scale, with groups   
   of interested people working together to help select other   
   groups and individuals in their local areas. It needs to be   
   kept in mind that those who would survive and benefit from   
   such a change in the thinking and efforts of those who could   
   help them, would be dependant on the stability of the system.   
      
   But there's already a surplus of food. So would it be a waste   
   of time? Even if we could dry, sanitize and package millions   
   of pounds of nutrition from our food waste every day, would   
   it be of no real value? Are people who are starving just going   
   to have to continue to starve, regardless of how much extra   
   food more fortunate people have to deal with? Would they   
   just become another dependancy...more trouble than it would   
   be worth? Or could it be practical to put together a system   
   like that?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)