Check out some highlights from the TEDxManhattan, “Changing the Way We Eat” featuring NRDC’s Peter Lehner. For more information on your food, visit http://www.nrdc.org/food/
Shop Wisely—Plan meals, use shopping lists, buy from bulk bins, and avoid impulse buys. Don’t succumb to marketing tricks that lead you to buy more food than you need, particularly for perishable items. Though these may be less expensive per ounce, they can be more expensive overall if much of that food is discarded.
Buy Funny Fruit—Many fruits and vegetables are thrown out because their size, shape, or color are not “right”. Buying these perfectly good funny fruit, at the farmer’s market or elsewhere, utilizes food that might otherwise go to waste.
Learn When Food Goes Bad—“Sell-by” and “use-by” dates are not federally regulated and do not indicate safety, except on certain baby foods. Rather, they are manufacturer suggestions for peak quality. Most foods can be safely consumed well after their use-by dates.15
Mine Your Fridge—Websites such as www.lovefoodhatewaste.com can help you get creative with recipes to use up anything that might go bad soon.
Use Your Freezer—Frozen foods remain safe indefinitely. Freeze fresh produce and leftovers if you won’t have the chance to eat them before they go bad.
Request Smaller Portions—Restaurants will often provide half-portions upon request at reduced prices.
Eat Leftovers—Ask your restaurant to pack up your extras so you can eat them later. Freeze them if you don’t want to eat immediately. Only about half of Americans take leftovers home from restaurants.
Compost—Composting food scraps can reduce their climate impact while also recycling their nutrients.
Donate—Non-perishable and unspoiled perishable food can be donated to local food banks, soup kitchens, pantries, and shelters. Local and national programs frequently offer free pick-up and provide reusable containers to donors.
Read more: NRDC’s Food Waste Fact Sheet
This Thanksgiving, Be More Grateful than Wasteful
“We feast to celebrate that our ancestors had enough food to survive their first winter, acknowledging that once upon a time food was something to be grateful for. Then the next day, we throw half of it away.” - Dana Gunders, NRDC project scientist.
Read more.
Photo: Pixelden via flickr
Americans, on average, throw away about 23 pounds of perfectly edible food, per person, every month.
A few simple guidelines can help you save money and cut down on the amount of food that’s wasted at home.
- Plan your meals for the week, and then buy only what you plan to cook.
- Make a shopping list, and stick to it.
- Check your cupboards before you go to the store, to avoid buying doubles.
- Understand that for many products, the “use by” and “best before” dates are simply manufacturer recommendations for peak quality, and are not an indicator of food safety. Very often foods—particularly dry goods—are fine long after the date on the package. Trust your nose and common sense.
Read more: Tackling Food Waste at Home
Food is simply too good to waste. Even the most sustainably farmed food does us no good if the food is never eaten. Getting food to our tables eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of freshwater consumed in the United States. Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten. That is more than 20 pounds of food per person every month. Not only does this mean that Americans are throwing out the equivalent of $165 billion each year, but also 25 percent of all freshwater and huge amounts of unnecessary chemicals, energy, and land. Moreover, almost all of that uneaten food ends up rotting in landfills where it accounts for almost 25 percent of U.S. methane emissions.
Nutrition is also lost in the mix — food saved by reducing losses by just 15 percent could feed more than 25 million Americans every year at a time when one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables.
Read more: Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill
Chart source: Food and Agriculture Organization 2011
