For my Geography class last term I did my final project on food waste and insecurity on the University of Oregon campus. There are several things that I came away from my research with. One thing that struck me is how common food insecurity is, especially on college campuses. The definition of food insecurity is essentially that you do not know when your next meal will be or where it will be from. This is different from the definition of hunger which just describes the physical feeling of being without food. It may seem an obvious distinction but often the two are confused. 

There are options for those who are food insecure such as food pantries and online applications for programs like SNAPS. However, these have limited reach and can even still be unreliable, leaving a majority of people still food insecure. My own personal experience with food insecurity has not yet really taken place, as in college I have had a meal plan with points so food has been reliable and readily available. Next year, however, may not be the same. I have heard that many people experience food insecurity starting their Sophomore year of college. 

Ultimately food pantries, community gardens, and other solutions are only bandaids to the problem. The most permanent and far reaching solutions come from sweeping changes in policy. The cost of living is simply too high and the minimum wage too low. 

Food waste on the UO campus has been minimized through a large composting program. However, as of right now this does not include post-production scraps (meaning leftover food from after it is served) leaving a bulk of the food waste still going straight to the trash. The University of Oregon still has a ways to go, but it does fare well on the national scale. Sustainability is a huge problem in the United States with thousands of pounds of trash produced every day. Furthermore on a global scale, aside from China and India (if memory serves) the United States is one of the highest producers of waste in the world. 

Argentina, from what I have found through some brief research, has been dealing with the same food waste problems as the US. There is not much infrastructure available to create the sort of drastic sustainability that needs to be put into action. However, there are definitely grass root efforts afoot. The newest strategy at the moment is to institute a cultural change in thinking around sustainability. This involved information campaigns and workshops for citizens. The idea is that once citizens understand the problem they will be self-motivated to seek a solution or elect officials who will. Therefore change takes place from the bottom-up. 

This is not terribly different from what is going on in the United States, I recall in second grade going to a school-sponsored puppet show that explained the benefits of composting. So it makes sense that not only does the change have to come from those who make up the bulk of the population, but also the youngest generation. This being said, more pressure could be put on institutions and companies to practice sustainability themselves. It simply cannot all be on the consumer.