A Waste

Dairy farmers have disposed of 43 million gallons of milk in the first eight months of 2016.  Dumped, flushed down drains, siphoned into sewers.  They have done so because they can’t get a decent price for their product.  This kind of waste is a problem for the United States.  Tens of millions of starving people around the globe would welcome the milk in some form — as cheese, as cream, as butter, as powder — but we have no way to get it to them.  It is a world-wide PR problem — over-production in one country and insufficient supplies in another.  Rather than dumping milk, there should be a system to distribute it or its processed forms quickly to countries where it is needed.  This could be done at cost and Federal and state governments should provide the shipping.  Global food waste is a failure of major proportions for which food producers and countries should be held accountable.  It has been said often enough that the world has the food it needs but not the distribution of it.  Hence, there are countries where abundance is tossed and nations where people starve.  It makes no sense.