Oh
Daniel Oh
Professor Franko
COM 204
October 19, 2015
Food Waste Speech Outline
Policy Proposition:
The United States government should offer bigger tax breaks to food
corporations for donating food waste in order to decrease the amount of global food waste.
Definition:
In this proposition,
food waste
refers to any food, vegetable, canned goods, edible
restaurant left overs that are discarded due to expiration date, classified as cosmetically
unappealing, or left untouched.
Bigger
refers to greater than the current tax breaks.
I.
Background and Introduction:
a.
Food waste is a problem in the United States. Americans are blessed to live in a
prospering nation, yet take food for granted. We prefer food that is cosmetically
appealing, over indulge in the grocery store, and discard half eaten plates of food.
Fruits and vegetables that are “Grade B” or disfigured and do not meet the “Grade
A,” is immediately thrown away before it reaches the supermarkets. In the United
States there are about fifty million food insecure families. The people from these
homes constantly fear whether they have enough food to eat or not. However,
food corporations discard perfectly good food due to its cosmetic condition. The
solution is to offer a bigger tax break to food corporations that donate food to
shelters. By offering tax breaks, corporations have the potential to keep more of
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their profits, which in turn incentivizes them to donate food. The results of
offering tax breaks to corporations can result in exceptional benefits for the
United States including: environmental, economical, and assisting hungry people
become self sustaining.
b.
“U.S. Congress enacted
Section 170
of the Internal Revenue Code in 1976 to
encourage donations by allowing C corporations to earn an enhanced tax
deduction for donating selected surplus property, including food
()
i.
Section 170 however is limited to certain foods, select corporations, and a
few chosen donation centers.
I.
Claim 1 (Harm)
a.
Chemical reactions from food waste in landfills heavily contribute to preventable,
hazardous greenhouse gases.
i.
Food waste contributes to methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas that is
twenty-one times more potent than carbon dioxide (End Food Waste
Now).
