Food Waste in the Modern World

First some facts about food in America today

• 40% of all food grown does not get consumed
• Food represents the largest component of municipal solid waste
• Food in landfills creates 16% of US methane emissions (methane is a potent greenhouse gas.)
• We throw out 165 billion dollars annually on wasted food
• 1 in 6 Americans are hungry
• Average American wastes 10x the food a person from SE Asia does.
• Over half of all fruits and vegetables are not consumed.
• Whole fields are left unharvested due to “lack” of market or not enough labor
• 10% of our energy production and 80% of our freshwater is used to transport and produce food
  

I find numbers like that very disturbing to even think about. How can we as a society be so wasteful with a resource vital to our survival. If our ancestors could see what we are doing with our food they would probably smack us for it.  We also should not forget the 925 million people that suffer from hunger to this day.  How can this kind of of food waste be justified in the face of all the need in the world?

It can't...

We don't have a food production problem on this planet but we have a food distribution problem.  We produce enough food to give everyone at least 2,700 kilo calories a day while the average person only needs around 2,500.  The problems that all those hungry people face are not lack of food but the inability to acquire it.  They don't have the land to grow the food or lack the money to buy the food.  The way food is grown, shipped and sold in the modern world is wasteful and it only benefits those that can pay for it.  This has to change or the problem will only get worse as populations continue to rise in parts of the world that cannot provide for them. 

There is much that can be done on a industrial and a societal level to reduce food waste but I wont go into that here since that is far beyond the scope of this post. To find more information on this topic check out a paper written by the Natural Resources Defense Council called Wasted: How American is losing up to 40 percent of its food from farm to fork to landfill for more information.

What I want to talk about is what can be done on a family and personal level. Most of what can be done is common sense but unfortunately common sense can fly right out the window when confronted with the realities of food.

Plan Ahead and only buy what you Need

This one is fairly obvious and most of you are probably thinking I’m not going to read any more of this dribble but hear me out. How many times did you buy that salad mix or that 10 lb bag of potatoes thinking yeah I'll use all of this and how many times has that come back and bitten you in the butt. For me more than I can count unfortunately and I have found really only one way around it. You have to plan your entire food needs for some fixed period of time and not deviate from it at all. This means knowing what you will eat for every meal for the next whatever you decided. I have down this and it isn’t hard when you live alone but when other people get thrown into the mix it is difficult.

Prepare smaller portion to reduce leftovers/EAT THE LEFTOVERS

I have lived with a few people that do not know how to do these things. They always prepare way more than they need and then you pretty much have to put a gun to there head to get them to eat the leftovers. You may know people like this or you may even be one of them. Not being careful about how much food you prepare can lead to a end of the month ritual where you toss the various science experiments growing in your fridge in the trash.  This is not only wasteful of food but also of your time and money which many people have in short supply. 

Grow your own food

For those of you with garden out there you know exactly what I mean, you have sweated and slaved over the food on your plate so you will be damned if it going to be wasted. Nothing motivates you more to not waste food that to see your own effort get tossed in the trash. Plus growing your own food will cut down on losses from transportation and culling that you would normally find in industrial food production.

Composting

There will always be scraps and leftovers when dealing with food but again you can reduce how much is wasted by reusing event he scraps. Proper composting will create very little odor and a useful byproduct for adding nutrients to your garden or yard. Nearly anything raw and organic can be composted including all fruits, veggies, paper, coffee filters, egg shells, etc. Composting can be done in any spare part of your yard and really doesn't require much hands on work once started. For you apartment or townhouse folks I would suggest a commercially produced composting system designed for inside use. Many types can be found at Amazon and they will produce compost at varying rates depending on type and usage.

Just by following a few simple steps at home we can reduce our food wastage and reduce the amount of food that is being wasted in the country.

Until next time my fellow environmentalists

Josh