{"id":3379,"date":"2008-08-25T12:50:33","date_gmt":"2008-08-25T18:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3379"},"modified":"2008-08-25T12:50:33","modified_gmt":"2008-08-25T18:50:33","slug":"the-shocking-statistics-of-food-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-shocking-statistics-of-food-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"The Shocking Statistics of Food Waste (and How to Keep Your Contribution to the Problem at a Minimum)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"food<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year at my twice monthly morning mother’s group, we were treated to garbage bags full of day old bagels, breads, cookies, and other baked goods courtesy of a local Panera Bread<\/a>. How did we get them? All we had to do was ask. There was so much that\u00a0 I would bring reusable bags and take home bagels, loaves of Italian, ciabatta, and focaccia bread, and often a few cookies. Many of the woman did the same. If our group hadn’t taken them, chances are they would have been thrown in the trash.<\/p>\n

Before you get all self-righteous about the waste of food<\/a> by restaurants, think back to the last time you cleaned out your refrigerator. What did you throw out? How about the last time you ate in a restaurant? What did you leave on your plate?<\/p>\n

Last week at World Water Week<\/a> in Stockholm, Sweden, some shocking food waste statistics were presented. What place does food waste talk have at a water conference? It takes a lot of water to produce the food that is ultimately wasted.<\/p>\n

In the US, it is estimated that as much as 30% of food gets wasted. That’s about $48.2 billion of food. That’s shocking at first thought. But when I think about what has been thrown out from my fridge over the years, what I’ve seen at the restaurants I’ve worked at in the past, what gets tossed in school and work cafeterias, and all the other places that contribute to the food waste problem, I can believe it.<\/p>\n

The people in Stockholm called on governments to reduce the amount of food that is wasted by half by the year 2525. That’s a long way away but we’re talking about governments here and we all know how long it takes them to achieve things.<\/p>\n

So I call on everyone reading this blog to reduce the amount of food that they personally waste by half in the next week.<\/p>\n