In a perfect world, no food would be wasted, and no person would go hungry. In the real world, however, food is wasted if it’s more profitable than not wasting it. Several years ago, when I frequented Calabasas for work, they planted a variety of cabbage in the center divider along Parkway Calabasas. It was purely decorative with no intention of it ever being harvested. Only in America would we use food as decoration and not allow the hungry to eat it.

If you plant any sort of edible or fruiting plant on your property, you should be required to harvest your crop each year and make sure it isn’t wasted. It’s a pipe dream, I know. It would be as bad if the unharvested food were left to decompose and return all of the nutrients to the soil, but it isn’t. The olives in the picture will be swept up and taken to a landfill. Why doesn’t anyone want to do better? 😩