According to a study published in a pay-to-publish journal:
“Americans waste nearly 150,000 tons of food per day, amounting to about one pound (422 grams) per person, and fruits and vegetables are mostly what gets tossed, said a study Wednesday.
The amount of land used annually to grow food that ends up in the garbage in the United States is 30 million acres, or seven percent of total US cropland. Some 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigation water gets wasted, too, said the report in the journal PLOS ONE.
Fruits and vegetables made up 39 percent of total food waste, followed by dairy (17 percent), meat (14 percent) and grains (12 percent).
Items least likely to be thrown out included salty snacks, table oils, egg dishes, candy and soft drinks.
“Higher quality diets have greater amounts of fruits and vegetables, which are being wasted in greater quantities than other food,” said co-author Meredith Niles, an assistant professor at the University of Vermont.
“Eating healthy is important, and brings many benefits, but as we pursue these diets, we must think much more consciously about food waste.”
America does waste tons of food; however, the way this article spins it makes it look like we are very careful about not wasting junk food whereas we discard vegetables and fruit willy-nilly.
I saw a lot of criticism directed at Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch program for similar reasons – tons of food was wasted.
“The 2010 law, implemented in cafeterias across the country at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year, was aimed at improving nutrition and reducing child obesity and authorizing funding for federal lunch programs. It called for more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat milk products and less sodium and fat. It also awards additional funding to schools that meet the standards — to the tune of six cents per healthy lunch.
2 responses to “Americans waste 150,000 tons of food PER DAY!”
Thanks to you David I have my family and my co workers composting vegetable scraps for me. I work at a firehouse and bring a plastic tote in every shift, I fill it with coffee grounds and my buddies throw their veggie scraps in it for me. At home, my family is used to saving the scraps and I usually come home to a pile of stuff to throw in my compost pile. Coffee filters, paper plates and napkins go in it with the vegetables, and it breaks down fine. My chickens love to jump up in it and go to town. It’s about 2/3 coffee grounds so maybe they are addicted! Thanks for your inspiration and knowledge you share!
That is awesome. I used to bring a trash can to church lunches and collect all the scraps for my birds. They’d turn it into good soil. No loss, plus I gained by not having to buy as much feed.