Guess How Much Food We Throw Away?
While millions of people don't have enough to eat, both in the United States and abroad, more and more Americans are wasting food.
Hard to believe, since many of us are the size of elephants, but 40% of all food produced in the U.S. ends up in the trash.
In spite economic woes and money troubles, a lot of food goes to waste, much of it during production, but consumers do a number too.
Here's how it breaks down. Since 1974, food waste per person jumped 50%, that's 150 trillion calories sitting in a landfill.
And all that happens even in tough times. In 2008, lack of money caused 6.7 million people to change their eating habits, up from 6.7 million in 2007.
The problem is multifaceted, a study in the journal PLoS ONE, says all this food waste now sucks up 25% of freshwater consumed in the U.S., and burns up 300 million barrels of oil each year.
Growing up, my family, most not born in the U.S., threw out nothing. Leftover pasta was mixed with eggs for breakfast, stale bread and banana peals ended up as compost, and empty butter tubs got filled with olives.
It's called "Italian Tupperware." Still makes me laugh.
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Created / Updated: March 6, 2010
Sadly, it doesn't surprise me to find we are this wasteful. I grew up in a home with an enormous vegetable garden and an orchard, so we went out each night and picked just what we needed for each meal. All peelings went onto our compost heap. We milked out own cows and with the excess made our own butter, cheese and yoghurt. We seldom bought packaged processed food and thus had no need to throw away bad tasting food, and we also created very little garbage in terms of packaging. As a result, I still have my own vegetable garden (alas I have to buy butter, cheese etc...), still have a compost pile and eat very little processed food and seldom throw out anything. Guess I was extremely fortunate to grow up with the food values I did.
ReplyWow, what a waste! I think planning ahead would really help. Plan your meals and get only what you need. If you know you can't use all of something ask your neighbor or friend if they need it OR would like to shop together and split up the groceries if need be rather than throw the extras away!
ReplyI have read a lot about this over time & a compost is a great idea if you can do it. I try to by just what I need & sometimes it is not enough but I rather go out & get a little something more than throw stuff out.
ReplyWasting food makes me so angry. I hate it when I have to throw ANYTHING out, so I am very anal about how I buy things...I keep a running inventory of everything and I buy only what we need every week at the store. I rarely have any produce spoil on me because I use it up and store it properly. I don't even waste the coffee that's left in the pot if I don't drink it all...I put it in ice cube trays and save it for making iced coffee.
Incidentally, I have an aunt and uncle who hate eating leftovers, so when they make a meal, they throw away all the leftovers that night so they won't take up space in the fridge. It irritates me that they are so wasteful, but if I were them, I would start making only what would get eaten in one sitting so I wouldn't have to throw any of it out.
ReplyGreat topic Gerry. My husband used to throw out food by habit. When we first married I would be yelling out 'No!' as he leaned the plates over the bin to throw out leftover food. His family just threw food out, whereas my mum would save leftovers and reinvent them the next day.
ReplyMaybe you need to be taught how to cook with leftovers and to think a little differently about leftover food.
Growing up we had to eat everything on our plate, if we didn't we had it the next meal.
ReplyMy mother would cook just about enough for a family of six, what was not put on the plate and was left over was added to the next meal.
That should be a constant in every family. I live in a family of six as well and that isn't the case but i hope we can change that.
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