Causecast

by SARAH NELSON, Contributing Writer

It’s that time of year where we eat until we can eat no more. We gorge until all we can do is pack up our leftovers for the next day. That’s right – it’s the holidays in America. For roughly six weeks out of the year, we try our hardest to ignore the fact that over one billion people in the world suffer from chronic hunger, nearly fifty million of them Americans.

A new report shows that Americans waste about 40 percent of all the food we produce. The study used statistics from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization combined with thirty years of data regarding metabolic rates and weight gain.

The thrown-away food equates to about $48.3 billion dollars and more than 150 trillion calories a year. Essentially that’s just about enough to feed about 20 percent of the world’s hungry or cover half of the World Food Programme’s annual budget. Instead, the oversupplied goods turn up in U.S. landfills. Even with food shortages reaching crisis levels in many nations, the report suggests that food availability is not the issue – it’s an issue of food getting where it needs to go.

A separate study conducted by Cornell University breaks down responsibility for waste in the production and consumption chain. The study found that production accounted for 20 percent of waste, distribution for about another 20 percent, and consumers for the remaining 60 percent.

Besides the wasted food, America’s obsession also accounts for more than 25 percent of the total freshwater consumption and more than 300 million barrels of oil per year. Not to mention, what the over availability of food does to the growing obesity problem. Plus, all that wasted food is really bad for the environment.

So, how do you deal with the waste of the world’s biggest consumers? That’s the question experts are currently facing. There is a major need to address the oversupply of food to the U.S. and to redistribute to regions where food sources are growing more scarce, creating a deepening issue of chronic hunger. Rerouting food supply is ultimately a policy issue, but we can do our part by cutting back on food waste.

Here’s Planet Green’s 5 Ways to Cut Back:

• Find interesting uses for your leftovers. You don’t have to reheat your leftovers and eat the same meal over and over again. With a little creativity, you can make many a meal from last night’s old news. For example, if you made salsa, a veggie side, or extra meat, throw it into an omelet, a wrap, or a stew.

• Make you own stocks flavored with leftover meats and veggies.

Support the world’s hungry. Donate to the World Food Programme’s global efforts. Download the Feed A Neighbor Toolkit from the White House for tips on how to feed the hungry in your community.

To find out more about American food waste, read the Plos One study in it’s entirety.

Photo by Masahiro Ihara