Food here, along with many other "developed" countries is abundant.
For many years I worked for one of the largest retailers in the world. If one egg out of a carton of twelve eggs breaks, the entire carton of eggs goes in the garbage. If a can falls off of the shelf and becomes dented, it goes in the garbage. All meat is labelled with an expiry date. To prevent anyone ever buying expired meat products, the packages are pulled from the shelves two weeks before the stamp dictates the food will be spoiled, and thrown in the garbage. If a fresh fruit or vegetable has blemishes or deformities, garbage. Breads and similar products a treated much like meat. Pulled early from the shelves, nothing wrong with it, garbage.
I worked in one store that did this, all stores do this. There are thousands upon thousands of stores. Entire herds of cattle are thrown in the garbage. Entire fields of wheat and thrown in the garbage.
The companies who do this, do not do it to protect their customers from getting sick. They do it to prevent financial losses caused by lawsuits. The people in general are not this wasteful. Most don't even know what truly happens to nearly one third of all food.
Would starving people eat it? I think we both know the answer to that.
Would they still eat it if they were told it is "garbage"?
This is what bothers me the most about living here. Many people choose to stay blind to it. Many people will not buy an apple if it doesn't look as good as all of the apples next to it. It's superficial nonsense. That sort of mindset causes starvation in other places. As they are being fussy, people die. If you tried to explain this to them, they would ignore you.
Really? this is actually happening??" ..."If one egg out of a carton of twelve eggs breaks, the entire carton of eggs goes in the garbage. If a can falls off of the shelf and becomes dented, it goes in the garbage."
As you rightfully put it this can be a source of meal for people here including myself. not only that, people can establish a BIG time business with this "garbage" products....
The major businesses here in Ghana is second hand clothing and these are rejected clothing from developed countries. Majority of them are from the garbage dumps and are shipped to this place for sell. WE even prefer them to original clothing because they are both affordable and for some reasons, some are very durable.
Not only clothing but used bicycles, machines, car tires and rims and anything u can think of is a big business here. The majority can't afford new things so if they can get an alternative that is less expensive and can do the same work, why not, they settle for it. If I may ask, would shipping these "garbage" eggs and other "garbage" yet good products cause the companies in terms of lawsuits? Am seeing a great opportunity in this. Seriously.... other people could also make a living out of it.