CLEAN UP YOUR PLATE, IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE

And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost."  So they gathered them up and fill twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten (JOHN 6:12-13).

Feedstuffs is a newspaper for agribusiness that I receive each week.  In a recent issue Rod Smith wrote a column called, "Food waste astounding."  He begins the column with these words and basic statistics: In a day and time when agriculture is under increasing pressure to produce 70% more food for 30% more people in 40 years, it's incredible that one-third of food production is wasted every year, yet that's the estimate from the U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization.  That's a lot of waste!

Waste is part of living in a fallen world; it can never be eliminated.  Nevertheless, it should be a high priority to reduce it as much as possible.  In America we have been bountifully blessed, so much so that American waste as much as 40% of their food and food waste is the largest single kind of waste entering land fills. If just 25% of what is wasted in America and Europe could be reclaimed there would be enough to solve world hunger.**  I might add that politicians are the biggest obstacle to solving world hunger.

Jesus did not believe in wasting food.  That which was left from the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was saved to be distributed to the poor and needy.  Christians must understand that it does make a difference to someone else in the world if they waste their food.

Our Father's Blessings,
Tom

*EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe

**food waste expert Tristram Stuart