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Americans Throw Away About 30 Million Tons Of Food Each Year

May 19, 2008 8:58 AM

Deep inside Sunday's NEW YORK TIMES was an article by Andrew Martin entitled "ONE COUNTRY'S TABLE SCRAPS, ANOTHER COUNTRY'S MEAL."  According to Martin, a recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that "AMERICANS GENERATE 30 MILLION TONS of FOOD WASTE EACH YEAR."

The article says a recent Department of Agriculture study concluded that "RECOVERING JUST 5% of the food that is wasted COULD FEED 4 MILLION PEOPLE A DAY, RECOVERING 25% WOULD FEED 20 MILLION A DAY."

What really caught my attention was a color photograph in the middle of the article picturing various items that make up the 122 POUNDS OF FOOD THROWN AWAY EACH MONTH BY A FAMILY OF FOUR:  18.5 pounds of GRAINS, 10.4 pounds of MEAT and FISH, 15 pounds of SWEETENERS, 8.6 pounds of FATS and OILS, 24 pounds of FRESH FRUIT and VEGETABLES, 22 pounds of MILK and other fluids, 12.8 pounds of EGGS, PEANUTS, DRY BEANS, PEAS and other products, and 10.5 pounds of PROCESSED FOODS and VEGETABLES. Jonathan Bloom has started a blog, wastedfood.com, that tracks the problem.

Reporter Martin says there was a program started in the Clinton administration by Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to recover wasted food, but it was stopped by the Bush administration.  And there is one other problem created by wasted food.  All but 2 percent of it ends up in LANDFILLS where it ROTS and produces METHANE, a "MAJOR SOURCE OF GREENHOUSE GASES."

May 19, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

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Posted by: older wh. lady | May 19, 2008 9:25:55 AM

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