This article called “How Much Food Do We Waste? Probably More Than You Think” by Somini Sengupta speaks about the massive amount of food we as a nation. The article begins with a shocking statistic; globally, we throw out about 1.3 billion tons of food a year, or a third of all the food that we grow. This food waste plays a role in sustainability of the global population as well as in reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Sengupta). On the global scale, waste comes in a variety of forms and illustrates the inequality that exists between nations. In poorer countries, food waste is from the farm or on the way to the market. For example, in South Asia, half of all the cauliflower that is grown is wasted simply because there is not enough refrigeration. In these areas, food waste is not because the food is thrown out by the consumers—it’s much too precious for that. On the other hand, in wealthy countries, like the United States, around 40% of wasted food is just thrown out by consumers (Sengupta). This is a result of many factors; we as a nation buy too much food, we don’t finish our food and a much smaller portion of our incomes go towards food (Sengupta). The US as a whole wastes more than $160 billion in food a year (Sengupta). Food waste is the single largest component going into landfills in the US, and this waste quickly generates methane and contributes to making landfills the third largest source of methane in the US, which also contributes to greenhouse emission (USDA).

The implications of this data are far-reaching. Food waste and food loss has a massive carbon footprint: 3.3 billion tons of carbon equivalent, to be exact. In addition, wasting this much food leads to more water wasted as well (Sengupta). Some solutions to the problem as already underway, including using metal for grain silos to prevent fungus ruining grain stocks in places like Africa and encouraging farmers in India to collect tomatoes in plastic crates instead of in sacks to prevent squishing and rotting, which are more simple solutions. On a larger scale, supermarkets are making an effort to change the way the “best before” labels are used to discourage consumers from throwing out food that is in fact safe to eat, and by trying to sell misshapen fruits and vegetables instead of immediately throwing them away (Sengupta). Now that food waste is being recognized as a major problem to be addressed, these initiatives in addition to other ones that are occurring around the world are working to cut down on waste.

https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm