Beyond the Scraps: The Real Cost of Food Waste

5/31/2024
Carys Sherrer (Hebron High School)

That foul smell seeping out from the cracks of your fridge from the package of blueberries you swore you’d eat fill your kitchen. It’s a weekly ritual of yours to remove it. Opening up your fridge to throw away spoiled produce, milk, meats, and leftovers every Sunday night. However, have you ever paused to look at just how much food has been wasted? If you don’t, you’re not alone. 76% of Americans think they throw away less food than the average American without realizing just how much all of our “below average” waste really piles up. 

Americans throw away an estimated 120 billion pounds of food every single year. Which is roughly 40% of the US food supply and $218 billion dollars worth of meals. These statistics are often alarming, especially when we realize all this wasted food impacts more than how much odor comes from your local landfill.

Across the globe countries cultivate their most fertile land in order to feed their population or export food to generate income. However, 28% of this arable land produces food that gets wasted. Not only does this misuse food that could feed the most vulnerable populations (811 million go to sleep hungry every night), but it exacerbates existing issues with inefficient agriculture. Especially in developing countries where agriculture often dominates a nation’s economy.

Land is typically prepared for agriculture by removing native fauna, simultaneously reducing natural environments and threatening biodiversity. 70% of the world’s water usage is for farming, enough to fill Lake Geneva three times over. Non-native species such as cattle, pigs, and chickens are often shuffled in taking up living space that could otherwise support native populations. In total this means food waste ends up using up to 21% of freshwater, 19% of our fertilizers, and 21% of our landfill volume. 

Unfortunately, this is before we even consider the greenhouse gasses produced by food waste. In the developed world the wasted food in landfills accounts for over 3 billion tons of greenhouse gasses per year. 

The world food industry is worth roughly $3.2 trillion dollars with billions spent annually to produce these foods, often at the cost of natural environments. We as the consumers have to be conscious of our portion and food choices in order to combat this. Nobody is perfect, but sometimes we know we don’t have the appetite for an extra large large or certain leftovers won’t get eaten. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.