Facts you need to know
Roughly 1/3 of the food produced in the U.S. is wasted in retail, foodservice and consumer levels. This equals:
- $48 billion a year.
- 10 trillion gallons of water (used to grow and process food).
- about $600 annually for the average 4-person household.
- each person throwing away their weight in food each year.
- enough to fill up the Rose Bowl every 3 days.
More Facts:
- Food Waste is the third largest portion of the U.S.waste stream yet the least recovered portion (at 3% recovery rate).
- According to a UN report, over 50% of the food produced world-wide is wasted. This is from food productio n to consumption-harvesting, processing, transport, distribution, and sale to customers.
- The Department of Agriculture estimated that recovering just 5% of the food wasted could feed four million people a day.
- Excessive consumption of food in rich countries inflates food prices in the developing world, according to government officials, food experts and representatives. Buying food (which is often wasted) reduces supply, which increases demand, thus the overall price of food.
- Food Scraps make up 17% of what Americans send to Landfills.
- Nationwide we send more than 29 million tons of food to Landfills each year. This accounts for nearly 77 million tons of CO2.
- According to The Omnivore's Dilemma, it takes more than one calorie of fossil-fuel energy to yield one calorie of food.
- Kids throw away roughly 25% of their lunches. This accounts for about $2 billion of tax payer dollars that go to the National School Lunch Program.
- As much as 70% of all restaurant waste is food waste.
- A typical restaurant meal has at least 60% more calories than the average home made meal.
Link between food waste and obesity:
- We tend to waste food that is perishable, and the most perishable items are fruits and vegetables - the very foods we want people to be consuming in greater quantities as part of managing weight. So targeting the consumption of these foods (i.e. eating them instead of letting them rot in the crisper) would seem to serve both the purpose of reducing waste and importing nutrition.
- One major source of waste is our preparation of too much food. Large portion sizes contribute to eating too much, so the solution to the problem of both waste and over - consumption is one and the same: prepare less food. Stores in the U.S. waste twice as much food as those in Europe. Supermarkets throw away an estimated $20 billion of food each year. In 1994, the food supply provided an estimated 3,800 calories per person per day.
