Food Waste and Me
You have come to the perfect place to get some easy ideas on reducing food waste in your life!
Two introductions to the problem of food waste.
A First Look at Food Waste
An easy first look
Food waste is a massive problem of multiple dimensions – both domestically and across the globe—and it impacts both developed countries and developing countries.
Estimates of the level of food waste are staggering. Globally, a recent report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers estimates that 30-50% of all food produced (between 1.2 and 2 billion tons) is lost before being consumed by humans.
Food Waste in America—A Current Conundrum
A more in-depth first look
Picture this: You’re up early on a weekend morning at your favorite grocery store, looking to get a jump start on your weekend. Virtually the only person in the store a few minutes after six AM, you head back to the meat department to get the main course for a special meal that night. You immediately notice a store employee pulling multiple packs of high-grade meat off the shelves – ribs, filets, steaks and ground beef – and tossing them into a rolling cart. With a sinking feeling, you ask “Are you throwing all of that out?” “Yes,” he replies, “It’s past its sell-by date.” Stunned, you ask, “Don’t you donate any of that?” “No, we don’t do that, we don’t want anyone suing us,” he answers.
If you want to learn more…
ReFed.com A data driven guide to business, government, funders and nonprofits to reduce food waste
NRDC White Paper How America is losing up to 40% of its food from farm to fork to landfill
WastedFood.com Why we waste food, why it matters and what we can do about it
USDA Report The Estimated Amount, Value, and Calories of Postharvest Food Losses in the US
Garden Food Waste Recent report on the extent of food lost in America’s home and community gardens
National Geographic One-Third of Food Is Lost or Wasted: What Can Be Done
United Nations Report Global Food Losses and Food Waste (Gustavsson, et al.)
End Food Waste.org A fun look at “ugly” produce
|The Extraordinary Life and Times of Strawberry | Save The Food | Ad Council||Tristram Stuart: The global food waste scandal|
|The environmental impacts of food waste||Gary Oppenheimer :AmpleHarvest.org — TEDx talk on ending food waste in 42 million home/community gardens|
What Can I Do?
If you are in a community where people have home or community gardens, we strongly urge you to also include Call to Action #1 – donating excess garden produce.
If you want to print out the Calls to Action, we’ve included the links at the bottom of each one.
Food waste: It hurts your pocket book, it hurts the environment and it hurts hungry families.