Food waste has always been a big problem, not only in the United States but all over the world. Most people are unaware that no matter how small the leftover is, if they throw it in the trash, it's contributing to the food waste. According to an article in Smithsonian Mag, around 133 billion pounds, or a little over $160 billion worth of food were in landfills in the United States in 2010.
Kai Olson-Sawyer, a senior research and policy analyst at GRACE Communications Foundation, said that there is no benefit when people throw their food away. The GRACE Foundation is an organization that gives importance to the connection of water, food and energy resources. He said that wasting food is wasting for the whole humanity. This is because when there is one rotten apple, you'll not only be throwing that away but everything that came with it from planting to productions.
Ruth Mathews, executive director of the Water Footprint Network, an organization founded in 2008 to advance sustainable water use, said that it is important to be aware how things are and where these things are grown.
Growing fruits and vegetables needs not only a healthy field but also water. It plays a very important role in this cycle, which simply means that when food is wasted, water is wasted as well. Every food that is on the table has directly or indirectly touched water. Meat needs the most water in production because of the amount of food the animal needs.
Food waste has other environmental impacts, too. "If you put all the food waste into one country, it would be the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter," says Brian Lipinski, an associate in the World Resource Institute's Food Program. Decomposing food that makes its way into landfills releases methane, which is significantly more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide.
Fortunately, change at any level-whether it's as a supplier, retailer or consumer-will help ease the impact of food waste on natural resources. Simply put, "it does matter how much you consume," Mathews says. "It does matter what you consume, especially when you get down to the details of where this is produced and how sustainable is that production."
