It takes a vast amount of time, effort, and money to produce food to feed the world. When we factor in that 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year, globally, the size and scope of the task of feeding ourselves is daunting. The 1.3 billion tons of food that goes to waste is about one third of the food that is produced. This loss occurs at six points along the way food is being produced and consumed. First, some food is wasted in the field; then more is lost after the harvest when handling and storing the food; there are more losses during processing and distribution. That is four of the six – steps that most of us have little control over—but the last two steps are where we can all do much better. Consumption and end of life are the last two points. Although the largest amount of food waste occurs in the field, 35% of food waste occurs simply because we throw it away. In the U.S. we waste more than 60 million tons of food every year.

What does the fact that we trash 35% of the food produced in the U.S. AFTER it is delivered to the grocery store? It means that all the energy used to plow, plant, irrigate, fertilize, manage pests with pesticide, harvest, store, package, transport, and shelve the food was wasted—it was trashed, not consumed. It did not provide nourishment; it went to the landfill. That is bad enough, right? But there is more… what about the fact that many fertilizers and pesticides and derived from a barrel of oil? What about the energy (and trees) that went into the packaging? Or the plastic (also comes from a barrel of oil) used in packaging?

Think also of all the hungry people. The folks who would happily take much of that food that was thrown away. There is more energy used to figure out some way to feed the hungry—food distribution centers, soup kitchens, holiday delivery of dinners. Wasting food is not only a shame, but also another thing that we can address to conserve energy—to ensure that the energy used to produce that food fulfills its purpose to feed and nourish people.

Actions have been taken to organize the reduction of food waste in recent years. If you want to dive into the details of the work being done to reduce food waste, here is a great place to start. https://zerofoodwastecoalition.org