More than 25% of the food available for consumption in the United States gets thrown away. If we could recover a quarter of that waste, we could feed 20 million people.

An estimated 27% of food available for consumption in the United States ends up in the trash. A third of the food purchased by people in England is thrown away. Families with small children in Sweden toss out about a quarter of the food they buy. All while millions starve.

Less food waste would mean less pollution from greenhouse gases. More importantly, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that “recoving just 5 percent of the food that is wasted could feed four million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people.”
Lamentably food waste has not been high on the agenda of too many people. “For decades, wasting food has fallen into the category of things that everyone knows is a bad idea that few do anything about.”

That may be changing. In addition to the efforts of food rescue groups that pick up excess food from cafeterias and restaurants, a growing number of stats and cities are offering programs to turn waste (food that can’t be used by food banks) into compost. Some restaurants are offering smaller portions. School cafeterias are starting to do away with trays, resulting in students taking less food. It’s a start but we all need to think about how to raise awareness of what less waste can mean in a world where so many are starving.

For more, see the article in today’s New York Times titled, One Country’s Table Scraps, Another Country’s Meal.


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