the peasant class exists to generate more money for the owner class, not the other way around.

always has been

edit:

A lot of that "destroyed food" is animals who lived their entire lives in tiny, filthy cages just so that they could be killed and rot in a plastic bag.

I do a lot of big events at big convention hotels, and you would be shocked at how much amazing food they throw out. I know you think you know, but trust me you have no idea.

The fact that at this time in history we have the world's first trillionaire and we padlock the dumpsters we throw food away into is a disgrace. The future will not look kindly on us that we let this stand

I recently went to the store to buy some pastries before closing—you can already know where I'm going with this. The pastry cupboard was empty so I went to check the lady who cleans them out. They were all in three big boxes stacked on top of each other, filled with soon to be thrown pastries. I took two and paid full price, knowing how ridiculous this is in contrast with the rest having been thrown in the trash 10 minutes later. I'd much rather go a day or two without food knowing that nothing gets wasted and no one goes hungry than what shameful consumerist nonsense we have now.

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.

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

They need the poors to fight their wars and work on their factory floors.

And to focus on perceived races, while keeping women and queers in their places.

(I'm working on the last line, too long)

It seems to me that affordability starts with housing, because it is usually a household's single largest monthly expense. And it seems to me the best way to make housing more affordable is to make it non-profit. That doesn't necessarily mean city owned or other public housing, nor does it mean tax payer funded or subsidized housing, but having apartment buildings owned by a non-profit organization that charges tenants only enough rent to cover the organization's expenses without any extra going to an owner as profit. And the thing is, non-profit housing isn't only theoretical. It exists right now, but it's relatively rare. The reason is for-profit landlords don't want it because they can't compete.

Let's say you have two identical apartment buildings, but one is owned by a non-profit housing cooperative and the other is owned by a private landlord. The non-profit housing cooperative is going to have the same ongoing expenses (property management, maintenance, etc) as the private landlord, because the apartments are identical, but rent will be lower at the non-profit housing because they charge only enough rent to cover expenses whereas the private landlord charges rent to cover expenses plus some for his own personal profit.

Credit where credit is due.

I live in NYC and voted for him, but I honestly thought he'd be bogged down by an entrenched bureaucracy and not actually do much.

It was worth the price of admission just to see the Lesbian Fire Commissioner.

edit = The Fire Commissioner was an EMS Chief before getting promoted. Back in 1995 most of the front line EMS workers hated the idea of being pulled into the Fire Department. They liked being independent. It took a long time, but now the tail is wagging the dog.

I work returns in a Costco. In fact, I'm typing this on my phone in the little office we have in receiving.

Food either gets sold or gets pulled for various reasons. Pulled food goes first to the local food banks. What can't go to them goes to a farm, a local pet rescue group, and to a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation group.

Anything left over from all that goes into a bin to be turned into high grade compost, which gets sold for $5 for a 20lb bag.

It takes time and money to do this, and it gets done anyway because the will is there.

In my country I used to work at one of the largest supermarket chains and I was very pleasantly surprised to find that we donated any food that didn't sell to our local food bank called "Nourished For Nil" which would then take the ingredients and cook some meals and then you could go get a box of food from them once a week for free, no questions asked.

We have too good to go, it's an app where shops can sell stuff that is near end of life at a discount. Some shops are better than others, we spent £3.99 for a portion at a local bakery recently and got 2 huge bags of baked goods.

Food doesn't get wasted and it costs very little compared to it's regular value. There is also a charity that focuses on similar things but elitist cunts friends and family have said I can't go there because I am not starving. They make it sound like a food bank when it's a shop selling products cheaply - or it was, they closed recently. Wanted to go but heavy social pressure/judgement not to put me off..

I love mamdani but "who" are these people that are scared that she's talking about? I want names because I want some hope. Many of them openly don't give a shit and literally say it...

Yes, yes and of we made everyone who makes 250k/yr pay 3865$/mo for ubi income of 1800$/mo for everyone in the country it would work out. It would take like 5 years for a solid treasury/trust to accumulate. It would be able to happen though.

He does sound like he's doing a lot more than the average politician rn, but I wonder if he's just gonna end up w a crossheir to his head for it.

Supermarkets destroy food if it doesn't sell. We can always feed the world. We just don't.

Somehow, I dyslexic speed-reading misread that at first as:

Supremacists destroy food if it doesn't sell. We can always feed the world. We just don't.

I worked at Panera bread (not a grocery store at all) in college and we would donate the leftover baked goods at the end of every night to a food pantry thing. Also they would let us take some home too. It was pretty nice.

I think they are some kind of regional franchise though so it could have just been ours

When I'm president, I'm going to spend every dicking dollar on education, so the masses understand that a single person doesn't make as much difference to 360M people as those 360M We the People do to themselves.

My twelfth grade English teacher told me the machines are broken, they just don't know they're broken, so the bigger machine made of machines grinds on. There's a scene in the matrix about this, how the average person is so dependent on the matrix they will fight to defend it.

What truly is possible to the human form? Society is 1776 updated to 2026. What if we just started fresh, what would we make and be then? Would it be 1776 2.0, or something else entirely? I think of democracy afforded in the modern day where only a republic was good enough before with the communication potential available then.

It is not that easy. It is not a question of can we feed people but can we get the food to them. Produce that doesn't sell is not going to last shipping again.

Heaven forbid right?

a few of the stores here, including both 'grocery' stores, do contribute close-dated and past-dated foodstuffs that isn't actually spoiled or bad to the local food pantry, who then distributes it to a huge line of people each week.

some weeks it's a pretty light box to pick up, but every now and then there will be a package of porterhouse or t-bones at the bottom of the box underneath all the "should've been eaten a week ago" produce.

Im in connecticut and my govenor is up for primary. He's done okay, but you can tell he is trying to compete with the younger fella up for the D primary. I hope the younger fella wins, but in the meantime 70ish old Lemont is trying to make headlines with "proposals" (nothings passed) that are based on policies that would benefit the working class.

I love to see the fear. I should write the old man and ask him to endorse his younger canidate. Near certain these guys just dont want to give up their comfortable positions of power due to some psycological desire.

We have a couple of services where I'm at now, where as food approaches its best before date, it goes into the app where you can order it at a discount and then go pick it up in store. If it can be frozen, they'll also freeze it to prolong its shelf life, like if it's fresh sausages that aren't selling.

I once got a large box of like 50 frozen burgers (frozen by default, not fresh to frozen) for like 80% off because they'd reached the best before on the box. They weren't freezer burned or anything like that, they were perfect.

A lot of places would have just thrown that out.

At least one local hypermarket does sell food at discounted price before they go off. Some poorer families rely on them.

This isn't always true. I was a volunteer at a Salvation Army food bank, and there would be crates upon crates upon crates of near expiry/day old bakery stuff/etc coming in from a local supermarket.

Don't get me wrong, it's not nearly enough. But there are some glimmers of hope within the rubble.

Aren’t political positions like titles which just give privileges and very little responsibility.

/s

I ate so well for a few months as a student until the local Waitrose started chaining their bins shut. Quite a lot of people did in fact, which is presumably why they started chaining them shut.

i heard local vendors would give their unsellable foods (discolored etc) to churches to hand out. dont know how much but its a tough issue.

Ok so what happens when you put food that close to going off onto a ship for a few weeks? You're just shipping rotten food to people.

The problems of logistics isn't "a choice" it's a very real thing.

Since the advent of GMO, starvation ls largely about political instability and conflicts. It's hard to get food to warzones. Something to think about before promoting violence as a solution to a problem.

The main problem is this :

A supermarket could donate food that will expire shortly to anyone or any charity. But if that near to expiration date food makes someone sick for whatever reason, that person could sue the supermarket. Insurance companies would charge a lot to cover that risk so stores opt to throw it out rather than do the morally correct thing and donate it because it costs them money reducing profit for no return to the stockholders.

If the US would pass a law shielding companies from lawsuits related to donated food, then this could become the norm

You, households and restaurants, also throw away food. Putting this on supermarkets sounds a little too easy. The ones I know sell leftovers, give to charities, have bins for YOU to give to charity, and throw away food with contamination risk. The last thing we all want is to make "the world" sick and get sued for it. While we're at it, check out the Food Hero App: https://www.foodhero.com/. There are some people who actually try.

Because it’s basically illegal for them to give it away. If they gave away expired food they would be sued to oblivion within a week because current laws make them liable for any sickness/death that occurs from it.

yeah it's politics' job to feed everyone, agree. however, food waste in general is not the bad thing that you think it is.

food production naturally fluctuates. there have been over 20 volcano eruptions (example) in the last 2000 years that led to recorded famines. it's only a matter of time till the next one happens. it's not preventable, the only mitigation is to have enough surplus food production capability to make it through even if 30% of crops fails.

and having surplus food production capability necessarily leads to food waste.

Don't know about your shit hole state, but in EU trade of expired food is strictly forbidden.

Because of health concerns.