Thursday, November 24, 2022

"Best by", "Sell by", "Use by" – Oh my!

"On average, the U.S. wastes an estimated 125 to 160 billion pounds of food each year . And where does it all end up? In a landfill, where it’s buried under mounds of toxic trash and eventually breaks down and emits methane . We bury so much organic waste that landfills are now the third-largest source  of climate-damaging methane emissions in the U.S.

But the environmental impacts of food waste don’t end there. By wasting food, we deplete precious resources, like water. In fact, agriculture in the U.S. accounts for about 80% to 90% of the nation’s water consumption . On top of that, when bad market conditions lead farmers to toss edible food aside or when sold foods go uneaten, all the resources that went into producing those crops are squandered. There’s also a massive economic downside to throwing away uneaten food, adding up to approximately $218 billion a year  in the U.S.

So, how did we start throwing out so much food? Well, several factors play into our increasing wastefulness. Here, we break down the components leading us to toss our food and offer solutions that can help solve our food waste problem."
Continue reading the article online -> https://www.clf.org/blog/why-we-waste-food/

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