40% of Food Wasted in U.S.???
August 22nd, 2012Via: Los Angeles Times:
Americans are throwing out nearly every other bite of food, wasting up to 40% of the country’s supply each year – a mass of uneaten provisions worth $165 billion, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council.
An average family of four squanders $2,275 in food each year, or 20 pounds per person per month, according to the nonprofit and nonpartisan environmental advocacy group.
Food waste is the largest single portion of solid waste cramming American landfills. Since the 1970s, the amount of uneaten fare that is dumped has jumped 50%. The average American trashes 10 times as much food as a consumer in Southeast Asia, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Such profligacy is especially unwarranted in a time of record drought, high food prices expected to get higher and families unable to afford food, according to the council. Efforts are already in place in Europe to cut back on food waste.
But American consumers are used to seeing pyramids of fresh produce in their local markets and grocery stores, which results in $15 billion annually in unsold fruits and vegetables, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. In restaurants and home kitchens, massive portions often end up partly in the trash.
Half of American soil and many other key resources are used for agriculture – the Natural Resources Defense Council says wasted food eats up a quarter of all freshwater consumed in the U.S. along with 4% of the oil while producing 23% of the methane emissions.
This has always been a pet peeve of mine. I cannot believe people who go out to eat, order a very overpriced meal, eat a little bit of it, and have the restaurant throw the rest out – are they insane!?!?!? Take it home! Actually I have noticed some people have gotten better about getting a to-go box.
I came up with my own saying relating to buying produce – “fresh food sucks!” because of how fast produce goes bad, and a lot of people are just to lazy to fix it, instead eating the instant type stuff while the fresh stuff goes bad, and later have to throw it out.
This also drives me nuts – you go to all the trouble to go to the store, pick out the produce, pay for it, lug it home, bring it in, put it in the fridge, then later throw it away – what lunacy!!!
Of course I buy more fresh food now that I am married, but when I was single it was all boxed, canned, or frozen. The only fresh food I would bring home would be apples or oranges because they lasted so long. When single I ate out more, and would try to eat fresh fruit and vegetables at those times.
Another thing along this line is don’t order off the main menu when eating fast food (unless you have a coupon). I order off the value menu, and when I order a sandwich I always order with extra lettuce, extra tomato, extra onion, and extra pickle. Sometimes the people working will give you a whole bunch for no extra charge. Ordering this way you can sometimes get twice as much food for half the cost by just “ordering wisely.”