((PKG)) FOOD WASTE
((Banner: Eat That Food))
((Reporter: Veronica Balderas Iglesias))
((Additional Camera: Kane Farabaugh))
((Adapted by: Bronwyn Benito))
((Map: United States / Washington, D.C.))
((Courtesy throughout: NRDC/Ad Council))
((NATS))
About 40 percent of the US food supply goes uneaten every year.
((Chris Cochran, Executive Director, ReFED))
It’s as if you went to the grocery store and bought four bags of groceries and then left one in the parking lot on your way out to your car. The price of food has been decreasing over the last several decades. So, actually we pay less for food today as a portion of our income than we ever have in the past and so I think as a result, we don’t place as much value on that food.
((JoAnne Berkenkamp, Senior Advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council))
When you look at our whole food supply chain and you look at where our food gets lost, where it’s wasted, the biggest single location is consumers at home.
((Chris Cochran, Executive Director, ReFED))
When I purchase something I may think that oh, I can afford to purchase that and then may or may not eat it. I just want to have the option of eating it. So, I think we live in an era of abundance and with that comes waste. So, I think we have to change our mindsets to be able to address this problem.
((JoAnne Berkenkamp, Senior Advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council))
Our savethefood.com website is intended to be a resource for consumers and it’s full of helpful tips that are just very accessible, easy to apply to your life at home. We try to make it fun and easy for folks so that when they spend money on food, they’re actually getting that value out of their food dollar by purchasing what they need and enjoying it and making use of it.
((NATS/Banner: Planning the right amount of food is hard. The Guest-imater makes it easy. Just tell it who’s coming and what’s for dinner. Then it tells you how much to make.))
((Chris Cochran, Executive Director, ReFED))
Consumers can start by looking at their own trash bins and understanding that each of us is part of the problem, but also part of the solution.
((JoAnne Berkenkamp, Senior Advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council))
As people become more aware of the fact that food waste is a problem and that most of us waste more than we realize, people are starting to change their behaviors.
((Siri: To last as long as possible, asparagus is best stored in a vase with water in the fridge like flowers))
((JoAnne Berkenkamp, Senior Advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council))
So, there are a lot of fruits and vegetables that nature produces that are not what we would consider to be perfect. Those products that are not consistent with those industry standards typically never make it past the farm gate. They get plowed under, they get composted and consumers never see that. If people want to help address some of those losses, providing a market for some of those imperfect produce items is a great way to start. When we waste food, it’s not just the food itself that goes to waste. It’s everything that was used in producing that food and getting it all the way to our homes.
((Chris Cochran, Executive Director, ReFED))
The cost of food is about 20 percent of our natural resources that go into producing food. That’s land and water and fertilizer, then shipping it across the country and sometimes across a continent and then ending up in landfill.
((JoAnne Berkenkamp, Senior Advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council))
When you look at food waste globally, if you added it all up, if it was a country, just food that gets wasted would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions after China and the United States. And that’s not all of agriculture, that’s just the food that we waste. So, if you’re a person who’s really thinking about how to support a healthier environment, how to reduce your environmental footprint, reducing the amount of food that you go to waste is a fantastic place to start.
