Food waste is likely something you’ve heard about on the news or in your local newspaper. But what you may not have realized was how dire an issue it really is. The amount of food that’s wasted globally is a huge amount and it stems from everything from over-production at farms to rigid standards for getting rid of nearly expired food at grocery stores to growing portion sizes at eateries.
It’s a growing contributor to shrinking water supplies, plays a large role in greenhouse gas creation, and costs billions of dollars. It’s an issue that desperately needs to be addressed – and quick. But before we talk about potential solutions, here are nine shocking food waste statistics that you may not have known.
1. One-third of the world’s food supply is wasted. That adds up to a weight around 1.6 billion tonnes of food worldwide on an annual basis. Even more shocking is that when thrown away, around 1.3 billion tonnes is still edible.
2. The equivalent price of the world’s annual food waste comes out to around 1 billion dollars. That’s billion. With a “B”.
3. Food waste doesn’t just affect the food supply; it also affects the water supply. The water that it takes to produce the amount of food we waste each year is over 64 cubic miles – or three times the volume of Lake Geneva, one of the largest lakes in Western Europe.
4. Fruits and vegetables account for the largest category of wasted food, according to the National Resource Defense Council. This surpasses seafood, grain products, meat, and dairy products. This isn’t terribly surprising, since fresh produce has a shorter lifespan than, say, a box of pasta or a bag of quinoa.
5. The majority of wasted food ends up in landfills and accounts for a large part of municipal waste. In fact, it’s estimated that 23% of methane emissions come from food waste in landfills – a major contributing factor to greenhouse gases.
6. 28% of the world’s agricultural land is used to produce food that will be wasted or lost. And that’s just the land. That’s not even considering the fertilizer, water, transportation and labor that’s involved in agriculture and food production.
7. Diners at restaurants leave, on average, 17% of their food uneaten on their plates. This is thought to be largely due to the increase in portion sizes at most restaurants – and especially chain restaurants. Over-ordering might also be at least partially to blame, since larger portion sizes don’t just apply to entrees, but appetizers as well.
8. Approximately 7% of produce on farms in the U.S. gets left unharvested. For a variety of reasons, these crops simply don’t make it off the farm and add to the food waste. These reasons can range from growing more crops needed during a season (in order to offset potential shortages from bad weather conditions or crop diseases) to not meeting the aesthetic look to be sold to a grocery store.
9. Composting at home could save 330 pounds of food waste per household each year from going into landfills. Compare that to the estimated 20 pounds of food waste that’s created per person per month in the U.S.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks