Food Waste In America

If you are like the average American and have had your office/group Christmas party already, then you probably threw away enough green bean casserole, store-bought sugar cookies and potato salad to fill a trash can. Most modern American families threw away enough Thanksgiving leftovers to make the bellies of a third-world family bulge for a week. About the only concern we have for the broccoli and ham leftovers is hoping the neighbor’s dogs don’t get into the garbage. While it is most evident during the holidays, the problem of food waste is a whole lot bigger than what to do with week-old turkey. According to statement by the EPA and Department of Agriculture, “Food loss and waste in the United States accounts for approximately 31 percent—or 133 billion pounds—of the overall food supply available to retailers and consumers and has far-reaching impacts on food security, resource conservation and climate change.” …show more content…
A sizeable portion of the waste are crops that go directly from field to dump, which brings up a tangled mess of issues like farm subsidies, trade and, oddly enough, what happens to ugly apples. The USDA believes one driving force in the waste has been the stream of images of perfect fruit/veggies dating back to the earliest days of color advertising that has left Americans squeamish of perfectly healthy potatoes or squash that don’t mature in the ideal shape/color. Most grocery distributors don’t even bring ugly fruit to market. Other than lightening up some on how we select produce, there isn’t much an average American can do to tackle the big picture of industrial produce