Rush Limbaugh's ridiculous food freakout: "The Nanny State wants all of us to start eating stale food!"

The USDA is trying to do something about the major problem of food waste in America. Limbaugh has a bone to pick

Published April 23, 2015 4:15PM (EDT)

Rush Limbaugh                      (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
Rush Limbaugh (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

Food waste is a major problem in the United States. A 2012 report from the Natural Resources Defense Council found that about 40 percent of food in the country (valued at about $165 billion) went uneaten. Not only does the wasted food end up in landfills where it produces tons of methane emissions, it also means that this food isn't going to the one in six Americans that lack food security.

Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched an app called "Foodsaver" that will help combat the issue. In a video, a USDA official explains:

"Many products may have a sell-by date of, say, April 1, but they could be good in your pantry for another 12 or 18 months. And by throwing those out, what you're doing is you're contributing to food waste in the United States."

Foodsaver will tell you how long a specific food product can safely be eaten, provide cooking tips and keep track of when items you've purchased will soon go bad.

Rush Limbaugh, who I am pretty convinced is a rat inside a mechanical human suit, is taking this reasonable, totally benign recommendation as a personal insult and a slight to freedom and America and human dignity.

"So now, the Regime is coming after average, ordinary Americans as wasteful, uncaring, slothful slobs," he said on Wednesday's edition of his radio show. "Here we have our caring Nanny State wanting all of us to start eating stale food. Obama's Agriculture Department thinks that flavor and texture and freshness and the nutritional value of food is vastly overrated, as exhibited by expiration dates. We are to be no different now than cows and horses eating months-old bales of hay."

Oh my God, Rush. Calm the fuck down.


By Joanna Rothkopf

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Environment Expiration Dates Food Food Insecurity Food Waste Rush Limbaugh Spoiled Usda