Depressing Stat Of The Day: Half Of The World's Food Is Thrown Away

From Britain's The Independent,

As much as half of all the food produced in the world - two billion tonnes worth - ends up being thrown away, a new report claims.

The waste is caused by poor infrastructure and storage facilities, over-strict sell-by dates, "get-one-free" offers, and consumer fussiness, according to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Each year countries around the world produce some four billion tonnes of food.

But between 30% and 50% of this total, amounting to 1.2 to two billion tonnes, never gets eaten, says the report Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not.

Larry might have to cast a wider net to catch all fo the Earth haters or to paraphrase a rather famous polical statement: we're all Earth haters now. That's not something we should wear as a badge of honor.

The Mayan Calendar Isn't Scary; A Bacon Shortage Is Scary

Homer Simpson might need to seek counseling: there might be a bacon shortage.

Might want to get your fill of ham this year, because "a world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable," according to an industry trade group.

Blame the drought conditions that blazed through the corn and soybean crop this year. Less feed led to herds declining across the European Union “at a significant rate,” according to the National Pig Assn. in Britain.

And the trend “is being mirrored around the world,” according to a release (hat tip to the Financial Times).

Quotation Of The Day: Cassandra Edition

Writing at CNN, David Frum points to a potential crisis no one is mentioning:

Prediction: 2013 will be a year of serious global crisis. That crisis is predictable, and in fact has already begun. It will inescapably confront the next president of the United States. Yet this emerging crisis got not a mention at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. We'll see if the Democrats do better.

The crisis originates in this summer's extreme weather. Almost 80% of the continental United States experienced drought conditions. Russia and Australia experienced drought as well.

No one listened to Cassandra's warnings; I doubt that anyone will listen to Frum and others who warn about an impending food crisis.