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Food Waste 101

 Food Waste

According to Global Reports on Food Crisis, 59 counties or territories have food shortages.    In 2023 the number of people experiencing hunger is up 24 million from the previous year.  In America, we are very focused on the price of food and how inflation has impacted our households’ ability to maintain our budget.    This is causing more people to live paycheck to paycheck which is very uncomfortable, especially for those who have not experienced this level of stress before,       


 In January of 2013, Brad Plumer wrote an article for the Washington Post on food waste in America. At the time, we were wasting $165 billion in food each year.  Most of this comes from restaurants, grocery stores, food production, and farmers which I can not change.    However, I was able to control my household and work towards reducing our food waste.   At the time, Brad reported that American households throw away between 14% and 25% of what they buy.  


 Reference Article:


“How the U.S. manages to waste $165 billion in food each year”

By Brad Plumer

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/08/22/how-food-actually-gets-wasted-in-the-united-states/?utm_term=.0cc43f66ad93


Over the years I have become so busy that food waste has crept back into my life.    This is disappointing, but I can start again now and work towards not being wasteful.   I cleaned my refrigerator this weekend and made my meal plan around what was left.   I froze what would not be eaten this week and prepared lunches for the first three days of the week.   This will make my week easier and help us to keep our food rotated.    In addition, I scheduled several leftover nights, so those little bits of food are not wasted.    Finally, the vegetable trimmings, used coffee grounds, or rinsed egg shells, are going to our community compost bin.    


Do you have any ideas on how to reduce food waste?    If so leave a comment below. 
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