Every day it comes to my mind to be thankful; appreciative that I’ve filled another table with food; gracious it’s another day that I did not have to worry where my next meal would come from; and elated that I was born and raised in a rich country that has given me this opportunity. But there is another part of me that is guilty. While I eat plentiful in my developed country, across the world in an underdeveloped nation, people are starving to death. And it makes me wonder how in the 21^st century this takes place with scarcely a notice, day after day after day.

            In my novel, The Sands of Kedar, I write about a time period where one of the reasons infant girls were buried alive in the sand was because parents feared the burden of feeding them. They were considered a nuisance in the desert terrain. Yet, this took place over a thousand years ago. It was a different time, a different world, and a different period. Today, we are more wary of our world than people were a millennium ago. The internet has lessened the space of our world. Few things remain unhidden for long. The happenings of another country can only be clicks away. The world is our neighbor, which is why we must all feel guilty.

            According to the EPA, Americans throw away 35,000,000 tons of food away every year. This takes place while 1 in every 9 people in the world suffers from chronic hunger. This is so while pictures of starving African children are plastered all over the internet. Too, every year Americans throw away so much food that the EPA feels it is poisoning the earth. Organic food produces methane gas. Methane gas is twenty times more toxic than carbon dioxide. And, wasting food costs Americans thousands of dollars each year.  The question is, what will it take to make a change, especially when a change is necessary?

            I really hate throwing food away. I’d rather give it away. But the abundance of it in America makes it accessible. And accessible means it is taken for grant it. Super markets are everywhere. And so, we grab and grab and grab without much thought.

            I believe that education is the key to the problem. Americans need to be taught how to shop, how to cook, how to save, and even how to share. It is unimaginable the gain in reducing unnecessary waste. The benefit is mind boggling. These words, alone, make it worth giving thought to.