Several recent reports have highlighted the staggering amount of food being wasted in the Western world. The first of these, by Timothy Jones, researcher in the department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona has shown that between 30-50% of food production ends up in the waste-bin. A study by the U.S. National Institutes of Health calculated that the American food system wastes approximately 1400 kCal per person per day – roughly the same amount that is actually eaten by consumers. North Americans are not alone in this, Britain’s Waste and Resources Action Program found that more than $20 billion of consumable food and drink is throw away in Great-Britain each year; and in Austria the Institute of Waste Management at the Agricultural University of Vienna has calculated that Europeans throw out 240kg of food yearly per person.
In a study published in 2004 Timothy Jones, anthropologist at the University of Arizona Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, estimates that the waste in the American food industry is as high as 40%. – amounts resulting in a staggering $45 billion annual loss. In their study of consumer food practices – Dr Jones and his team have found that families throw out approximately 14% of the food that they buy – 15% of this food was in its original package and disposed of earlier than the “best before” date. Simultaneously, 90% of families surveyed said they wasted little or none of the food that they purchased.
In a 2009 study, U.S. National Institutes of Health found that the U.S. wastes 150 trillion kilocalories a year. Those figures concur with Dr Jones’ research, showing that about 40 percent of the United States food supply ends up filling our landfills (up from 28 percent in 1974). Besides the obvious squandering of food, these wasted calories have a serous environmental impact. More than 25% of America’s consumption of freshwater and about 300 million barrels of oil a year are used to produce the wasted food, which simply ends up producing a whole lot of methane (a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) when all this food rots away in landfill sites.
Kevin Hall and his colleagues at the U.S. National Institutes of Health reported that food waste in the U.S. increased by about 50 per cent since 1974. Concurrently the USDA revealed that it took only 5.6 percent of income to feed an average family of four in 2009 – the lowest share since 1929. The lower perceived or monetary value of food is certainly one of the major contributing factors to its waste, as consumers become less frugal, plan less carefully and waste more when food budgets eat up a smaller portion of total income.
As the food industry pushes for ever lower food prices – farmers are often forced to abandon crops in the field (a practice known as walk-by or plow-under), as harvesting the same crops will cost the farmer more than the crop is worth. Dr Timothy Jones’ research at the University of Arizona demonstrated that among others; 350 000 tons of leaf lettuce, 130 000 tons of broccoli, 40 000 tons of carrots, and 50 000 tons of cauliflower are lost on the farm each year in the U.S. – 50% of which are plow-under losses.
In Great Britain, a study by the Waste and Resources Action Program, or WRAP — a group created by the British government to investigate waste and packaging — found Britain’s food waste amounts to an estimated 6.6 million tons per year. According to Britain’s Food Climate Research Network food production, distribution and storage account for nearly 20 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. “If we stopped wasting food that could have been eaten, we could prevent at least 15 million tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions each year,” WRAP’s report concluded. “The majority of these emissions are associated with embedded energy, but a significant proportion arises as a result of food waste going to landfill sites.”
The WRAP study highlighted the fact that households throw out up to 20% of the food they buy while it is still fit to eat – dairy and eggs are at the top of the list (15 %), followed by bread and veggies (13 %), meat products (12 %) and prepared meals and foods (9 %).
According to scientists at the Institute of Waste Management at the Agricultural University of Vienna, European consumers toss out €100 worth of food per person each year – the equivalent of 240kg (3 times the weight of the average adult male). As seen in both British and American stuydies – many food products leave the grocery only to end up in the trash with their wrapping intact. The same wasteful habits plague the food industry – with bakeries baking bread right up until closing time. This results in waste on such a scale that the bread wasted in the city of Vienna (population of about 1.7 million) could fill the needs of a medium sized city like Graz (population of about 300 000).
Supermarkets are also serious offenders. As competition between supermarkets has habituated consumers to buying only blemish-free and perfect produce, supermarket have started throwing out perfectly edible foods for the most superficial of reasons. Damaged packages, slightly blemished fruits and veggies, day-old bakery products, nearing best-before dates and product lines that have been withdrawn all end up in the garbage bins. Average sized groceries in Europe (much smaller than our standard North-American supermarket) throw out 45kg of perfectly edible food each day. The most common items are fruits and vegetables, followed by eggs, cheese and meat. Experts estimate that at least 25% of the products thrown out are still good to eat.
References
A hill of beans
Nov 26th 2009
From The Economist print edition
Le gaspillage de denrées alimentaires se poursuit
Canoë
11/11/2008 14h25
Gaspillage des denrées alimentaires
Mettons fin au gâchis
Environnement
10.11.2008
Note
CBC radio’s current affairs program The Current, in it’s ongoing series Diet for a Hungry Planet has put together several very interesting reports on food issues, including this report on food waste.
