The grocery bills are constantly rising. Food banks are running short of donations and there are riots in the poor countries through out the world. Do you have any idea that what is ending up in the landfill in the United States? Americans waste around 27% of the food available for consumption according to the government study and it does happen in the supermarket, restaurants, cafes and in the kitchens. Almost a pound of food is thrown away a day by every American. Shocked?

Grocery stores discard the products due to spoilage or minor cosmetic blemishes. Hotels and Restaurants throw away what they don’t use and the consumers throw out everything from bananas that have turned brown to last week’s chinese leftovers. The food waste studies in 1997 found that 96.4 billion pounds of the total 356 billion pounds of edible food in United States was never eaten. 2/3rds of the food waste are fresh milk, grain products and sweetners. Americans are producing around 30 million tons of food waste each year which accounts to 12% of the total waste stream. It is now that the numbers seem all staggering, given the cost of the food is going up and there is a food crisis around the world.

After George Bush had said recently that India’s middle class was helping in pushing up the food prices by demanding better food and more food, the officials in India said that not only do the Americans eat too much but also throw out too much food. If Americans slimmed down to the weight of middle class Indians, many people in the sub-Saharan Africa would find food on their plates. Also note the fact that the food that ends up in the landfills produces Methane, a major source of greenhouse gases.

Even if we recover the 5% of the food that is wasted overall, it could feed 4 million people a day.

Random Posts