Letters to the editor

I read "How Will We Feed the Future and Save the Planet?" [Spring], which discussed at length the problem of food waste. Then, in that same issue, I read "Crazy Legs Is Still Hungry" about competitive eating. Competitive eating is a disgusting example of grossly wasting food, something you can only do in a culture that has excess food that it can afford to waste—in other words, a privileged first-world country. It is unbelievable to me that you would put these two articles in the same magazine.

Kendra Biddick, A&S '87
Clarksburg, Maryland

"Why Do Chilies Hurt So Good?" [Spring] got me thinking about spicy food. While in graduate school at Hopkins, I was finishing up my commitment to the Maryland National Guard. One weekend per month we would meet, plus two weeks in the summer, and at lunchtime everyone would reach into their back pockets and pull out a bottle of hot sauce. As a white, Jewish PhD candidate who felt the need to be accepted as one of the 200 troops there, I soon picked up a bottle of chili habanero sauce, not knowing what a habanero pepper was. I gradually learned to tolerate it and then, over my four years in Baltimore, eventually grew to actually like it.

Harry Hersh, A&S '75 (MA), '76 (PhD)
Natick, Massachusetts

"I just finished reading Sarah Kuta's extraordinarily relevant article, "How Will We Feed the Future and Save the Planet?" Thank you for amplifying these voices. I am grateful that an entire issue of Johns Hopkins Magazine was dedicated to food. I hope there are more to come, especially those that deal with our defunct food system.

Michael Wilbourn, Ed '21 (Cert)
Fort Collins, Colorado

Correction: The spring feature story, "How Will We Feed the Future and Save the Planet?" misstated the number of adults worldwide classified as overweight or obese. The correct number, according to the World Health Organization, is 1.9 billion. We regret the error.