Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill

[Bill USA]

http://www.nrdc.org/food/wasted-food.asp

Food is simply too good to waste. Even the most sustainably farmed food does us no good if the food is never eaten. Getting food to our tables eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of freshwater consumed in the United States. Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten. That is more than 20 pounds of food per person every month. Not only does this mean that Americans are throwing out the equivalent of $165 billion each year, but also 25 percent of all freshwater and huge amounts of unnecessary chemicals, energy, and land. Moreover, almost all of that uneaten food ends up rotting in landfills where it accounts for almost 25 percent of U.S. methane emissions.

Nutrition is also lost in the mix -- food saved by reducing losses by just 15 percent could feed more than 25 million Americans every year at a time when one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables. Given all the resources demanded for food production, it is critical to make sure that the least amount possible is needlessly squandered on its journey to our plates.

Identifying Efficiency Losses in the U.S. Food System

This paper examines the inefficiencies in the U.S. food system from the farm to the fork to the landfill. By identifying food losses at every level of the food supply chain, this report provides the latest recommendations and examples of emerging solutions, such as making "baby carrots" out of carrots too bent (or "curvy&quot to meet retail standards. By increasing the efficiency of our food system, we can make better use of our natural resources, provide financial saving opportunities along the entire supply chain, and enhance our ability to meet food demand.

The average American consumer wastes 10 times as much food as someone in Southeast Asia, up 50 percent from Americans in the 1970s. This means there was once a time when we wasted far less, and we can get back there again. Doing so will ultimately require a suite of coordinated solutions, including changes in supply-chain operation, enhanced market incentives, increased public awareness and adjustments in consumer behavior.
(more)

click on image to go to the report in PDF:



Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill - PDF

[DonViejo]

1. Great, great amount of useful information there...

Thanks for posting this, Bill USA!

[daleanime]

2. K&R....

[fasttense]

3. I am so sick of hearing how wonderful it was to turn bad carrots into baby carrots.

First these are bad carrots. Notice the spots and other discoloration on them. Notice the white dried out lines on them. Notice how quickly they deteriorate in the fridge. Notice the bland, sour or bitter flavor of them. They would have been better used as compost. I feed carrots like these to my Black Soldier Fly Larvae to turn into compost.

Or here is a thought, they should have been used as compost to grow REAL BABY CARROTS. Then they would NOT have to lie about them. It was a con on consumers and everyone acts as if it was a great marketing idea. Yeah, if you like to con and cheat your customers, while selling an inferior product that tastes like crap then it was a great marketing idea.

Notice that they sell them AS IF THEY WERE BABY CARROTS when they are merely ground down bad large carrots. So when I go to sell my REAL BABY CARROTS, people wonder why I charge so much, until they taste them.

Americans don't know what real food tastes like. They are eating compost and think they are being healthy.

[cprise]

4. "...carrots too bent (or "curvy") to meet retail standards."

I don't know... Compost is probably not the answer to a lot of questions revolving around food waste.

I think its mostly a cultural problem; People these days will throw half a roast out and repeat that week after week without a second thought.

[fasttense]

5. Yeah, that's what they claim

That the carrots are just fine and dandy, they were just too curvy or misshapen. I don't buy it. They cut off the bad parts and then shave them down to look like baby carrots and they taste like crap. Have you seen the misshapen carrots in the bags at the grocery stores? They don't look all that perfect to me.

Now, when a carrot is bad and has bad spots, something has damaged it. I have learned from experience even if you cut off the bad parts, those carrots will rot quicker and are of inferior flavor. It's a scam, a way to sell compost as food.