One Country’s Table Scraps, Another Country’s Meal

[OneBlueSky]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18martin.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=One+Country%27s+Table+Scraps%2C+Another+Country%27s+Meal&st=nyt&oref=slogin


Into the Trash It Goes - The food an American family throws away each month.

By ANDREW MARTIN
The New York Times
Published: May 18, 2008

Grocery bills are rising through the roof. Food banks are running short of donations. And food shortages are causing sporadic riots in poor countries through the world.

You’d never know it if you saw what was ending up in your landfill. As it turns out, Americans waste an astounding amount of food — an estimated 27 percent of the food available for consumption, according to a government study — and it happens at the supermarket, in restaurants and cafeterias and in your very own kitchen. It works out to about a pound of food every day for every American.

Grocery stores discard products because of spoilage or minor cosmetic blemishes. Restaurants throw away what they don’t use. And consumers toss out everything from bananas that have turned brown to last week’s Chinese leftovers. In 1997, in one of the few studies of food waste, the Department of Agriculture estimated that two years before, 96.4 billion pounds of the 356 billion pounds of edible food in the United States was never eaten. Fresh produce, milk, grain products and sweeteners made up two-thirds of the waste. An update is under way.

The study didn’t account for the explosion of ready-to-eat foods now available at supermarkets, from rotisserie chickens to sandwiches and soups. What do you think happens to that potato salad and meatloaf at the end of the day?

- more . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18martin.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=One+Country%27s+Table+Scraps%2C+Another+Country%27s+Meal&st=nyt&oref=slogin

and . . .

http://www.wastedfood.com/

[Mojorabbit]

1. Such a shame

Between my dogs, chickens, and worm farm not much food goes to waste here but I can do better.

[OneBlueSky]

2. I must say I rather amazed that this topic didn't generate more discussion . . .

given the food crisis occurring all over the planet, the amount of food wasted in this country is truly immoral . . . I think there should be more programs -- like in every city and town -- where unused food from restaurants and markets is collected every day, sorted properly, and put to good use feeding those in need . . . the existing programs are great and demonstrate that the feasibility of the idea, but so much more could be done . . . and there isn't a community in the country that doesn't have hungry people . . .