Wasted: 40 Percent of Food
| Mon Nov. 30, 2009 4:19 PM PST
Americans, obviously, are eating more than ever before. A new study suggests we're also throwing away more than ever before. About 50 percent more per person since 1974.
According to the new calculations, food waste contributes to greenhouse gas emissions in the form of methane and CO2 from decomposing food. In the US, it also accounts for:
- More than one-quarter of total freshwater use
- Some 300 million barrels of oil a year (~4 percent of total American oil consumption)
Until now, studies of food waste have depended on interviews with consumers and inspections of garbage. Neither is particularly accurate.
In this study, researchers analyzed the amount of food consumed by tracking average body weight in the US from 1974 to 2003. They assumed that exercise levels hadn't changed in that period (an admittedly conservative approach). They compared these data with estimates of the total food available in the US as reported by the USDA to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.
The difference between calories available and calories consumed (what the researchers call the missing mass of American food) equals food wasted. Here's how it breaks down per person per day in 2003:
- 3750 calories available
- 2300 consumed
- 1450 wasted
That's 39 percent of the American food supply that is never consumed by human beings. Multiply the individual waste by 300 million Americans and you get enough to feed the people of the Philippines.
The 39-percent estimate significantly exceeds the 27-percent estimate of the USDA, based on consumer and producer interviews.
The new study is out of the Laboratory of Biological Modeling, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, in Maryland. The paper is open access at PLoS ONE.
A little something to chew on as we head to Copenhagen.
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Comments
If it makes you feel better,
Submitted by grossesse (not verified) on Mon Nov. 30, 2009 10:42 PM PST.
If it makes you feel better, it took us about an hour last night to pack up and divide among guests all the leftovers, including the turkey carcass that will be made into soup.
Forget all those fancy-schmancy what-to-do-with leftovers recipes in the paper: cold turkey munched right out of the fridge is the BEST.
Sadly true
Submitted by Adrian (not verified) on Tue Dec. 1, 2009 4:00 AM PST.
So much food gets wasted every day. It`s sad when you think about how many children die of starvation in 3rd world countries. fingernails
Food, Inc.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Dec. 1, 2009 8:50 AM PST.
Remember it's partly because of food subsidies given to Big Farm by Big Government that cause food to be so cheap, it's easy to justify throwing it away!
corporate waste
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Dec. 1, 2009 3:16 PM PST.
also take into account businesses that throw away food. I know that chain food restaurants, including pizza, all throw away any leftover food. They have company policies about not being able to give the food away. They also lock their dumpsters because of liability reasons, in case someone wanted to eat the perfectly good (not healthy) food in them and got sick or had an accident. If they donated the food in the first place they wouldn't have that problem. Even super markets like Whole Foods and New Seasons do this.
I agree, Anon. The American
Submitted by Julia Whitty on Tue Dec. 1, 2009 5:18 PM PST.
I agree, Anon. The American obsession with "germs" leads to more waste than can possibly be good for a living planet.
Julia Whitty, Environmental Correspondent, Mother Jones
And what about the Millennium Development Goals?
Submitted by oilisdumb on Wed Dec. 2, 2009 1:06 AM PST.
I agree, Adrian.
A while back I attended a conference on strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. MDG #1 is Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger by 2015. So how much does it cost to do this? When I took the conference I remember a figure around $30 billion for the U.S. contribution to this goal, and Heifer International cites various sources estimating that our part would be between $25-36 billion / year. Either way, this is basically nothing.
Contrast this with how much the U.S. spends on the dieting industry: $40 billion per year, according to Business Week. Stats like this are basically incredible to me. Do most Americans know this?
All we can do is work to pass this information along to others, and take actions to change things.
Chuck Michelson, Founder, Oil is Dumb, www.oilisdumb.com
valve
Submitted by valves manufacturer (not verified) on Wed Dec. 2, 2009 9:16 PM PST.
The difference between calories available and calories consumed (what the researchers call the missing mass of American food) equals food wasted.
Just another symptom of the
Submitted by AConscience (not verified) on Sun Dec. 6, 2009 4:20 PM PST.
Just another symptom of the disease called capitalism. When everything is arranged for maximum profit for the scumsucking parasites called bankers, all other concerns go out the window. 'Efficiency' in this case means paying the minimum number of employees minimum hours at the minimum wage possible, avoiding lawsuits at all cost, minimizing 'handling' time by maximizing packaging (waste), not to mention all the assembly-line techniques designed to line Monsanto's pockets and minimize hands-on labor.
Let's just tell the banksters and MBA geniuses who sold our jobs long ago to go to somewhere very warm and NOT caused by human activity.
Empires in terminal decay fall apart doing evil things.
Submitted by Anony Jon (not verified) on Tue Dec. 8, 2009 10:06 AM PST.
Remember the days when all food was grown organically, and tasted great and had strength to it. Contrasted to todays food which in Agribuiz is chemicalized, and sprayed 'Liberally' with poisons to fight the nasty weeds. No wonder with maximum profits on selling volumes of the new bright tasteless commodities that never sprout, as their buds are poisoned so housewives see they 'look good'. Selling for volumes of food only encourages the monopolized food to be wasted. Its good for American buisiness. The more volume thrown out the more the housewives from hunger have to buy the commodities.
Did you really think a society that cages the animals, and force feeds them drugs and hormones and enzymes and other forced chemicals, would treat your plants as food differently. (Or yourselves for that matter) Come on, volumes of GMO's are comming and so is monstrous terminal seeds that grow gargantuan sizes. Did you ever wonder why there is so much cancer and all doctors do is sign the death certificates , never saying why such huge deficits happen. Aggressive wars get your social monies, and social programs are downsized and out sourced. It is the law, of the material world, all empires in terminal decay shatter towards the end of their lives.
With the oceans emptied by 80% of their previous fish for instance do you think such oppulence is sustainable. Plastics instead of organic hemp are destroying the natural environment, yet the trillionaire banks are bailed out and the workers are let out for tent cities and their houses forclosed. Such a sytem is not sustainable nor safe nor savable. Best a new social order such as a workable state be brought into being. Viva socialist liberation. End pollution wars, not endless wars for more pollution.
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