- In France supermarkets have to donate food about to expire, they can't throw it away
- Eu is making a law that forbids companies to incinerate/ throw away clothes
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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might change this year. Wheat crop likely to be smallest since 1970.
We have the means to end every form of inequality out there. We would just have to come together as world to make it happen. But no. We're basically monkeys with nukes.
Which is why, as a species, we deserve everything coming our way.
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
Oh shit. I actually need to read that. One of the ones school was correct to try and push on us, I see.
This reminds me of how I need to read Steinbeck, especially Grapes of Wrath
Capitalists are ghouls
Yup. Worked a 7-11 for a few years; anything not sold is written off and thrown out. If you're caught taking it home, or giving it away; immediate termination, with cause.
The reason I was given is 'conflict of interest'. The employees decide how much to make; if they're allowed to take it/give it away, they may choose to make extra to ensure they/their friends get freebies. Bullshit.
Also things supermarkets consider "damaged goods".
4-pack of coke, but 1 can is missing.
Cans "cannot be sold separately", therefore it's trash now.
???
Then why is there always so much fucking waste
Because their 'weekly forcast' software is garbage and the employees aren't paid enough to GAF.
Because people WERE making too much and taking advantage. Like I get it your the edge case you'll never do that, but most people in the roles do. File that under"why we can't have nice things". Small businesses have to implement this all the time. It's a huge loss of income and makes inventory a royal pain in the ass with sudden shortages because employees don't record what they're stealing.
Small restaurants are more likely to allow employees to grab food at the end of the day or even implement family meals. It helps with team cohesion, morale, and when normalized means it doesn't fuck with inventory counts because employees do record what they take. The 12 years I was with my ex spouse they worked in restaurants and were constantly coming home with food half the time it was the owners actively giving it to employees. The people working those places knew not to take advantage of it otherwise they'd lose that trust and the perks.
We could live in a world where big corps decide to let a little control go and treat their employees like humans and us and the corps would be fine. Instead of locking everything down we can just normalize human behavior and a base level of decency and people will respond positively. "Never take anything or you're fired" leads to people being sneaky and now the books are all fucked plus morale is trashed, "you can grab a reasonable amount but write it down and don't take anything that's high demand or hard to replace" and now the books and employees are happy and you can roll it into business expenses
Makeshit0p is a very spot on username for you.
Canada is pretty similar. So much dumped instead of priced to sell
But then people juat wait and buy it cheaper.
So you'd rather toss it? Nice.
At least in grocery stores you would be amazed how much stuff people pick up and leave somewhere else unrefrigerated. Or, they take stuff like bread or hot goods and leave it in a freezer bunker where it can’t be sold anymore.
It pisses me off and it’s not the stores fault, all they can do is throw it out. That’s usually what the carts of random garbage are: returns and customers ruining stuff.
The other stuff yrs, is disgusting. A manager who over produces so much should be getting called out for it, and most businesses don’t teach or use anything sophisticated to manage ordering.
The regulations on what you’re allowed to sell are pretty crazy. I raised some pigs and got the cast offs from the food bank. Bread and vegetables and grains that were just past the date they could legally be sold as human food.
A lot of the waste is capitalist greed, to be sure, but some of it is due to reall ly strict regulations on what you can sell as food without risking a lawsuit.
I donated about 10 pounds of pork chops to the food bank from the pigs, btw
The issue is the price keeps people from buying it so it hits its best before date. As the dates are coming up they could do price chopping and get it sold.
There's so many ways to migrate waste aside from pricing to sell, too. I like my local Sprouts supermarket though, I find items at 99 cents that were like 8 dollars before.
I heard a good solution is also producing smoothies and such from old and ugly fruits and veg.
I thought Sprouts was a fictional supermarket in Pluribus before this.
Huh.
It's pretty nice. I like that it has bulk bins for some stuff, although it doesn't sell as much in bulk as it could. Unfortunately, the closest one to me is still quite a bit farther than several other supermarkets, so it's not often that I shop there.
The one near me has dispensers to refill seasonings instead of constantly buying new jars when you run out. Its why i like the one here, but yeah its 25 minutes away and you'll pass 3 walmarts and 2 krogers on the way.