If the price of produce on the market is lower than the cost of transportation and labor, sometimes farmers will leave their crops un-harvested. Market conditions off the farm can lead farmers to throw out edible food. Food may not be harvested because of damage by weather, pests and disease. To hedge against pests and weather, farmers often plant more than consumers demand.
13 Food loss occurs on farms for a variety of reasons.
10 11 12 Yet 20 billion pounds of produce is lost on farms every year. 9 Food Loss on Farmsįood production in the US uses 15.7 percent of the total energy budget, 50 percent of all land and 80 percent of all freshwater consumed. 8Įdible food is discarded at every point along the food chain: on farms and fishing boats, during processing and distribution, in retail stores, in restaurants and at home. 6 Food waste is a specific piece of food loss, which the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS), defines as “food discarded by retailers due to color or appearance and plate waste by consumers.” 7 Food waste includes the half-eaten meal left on the plate at a restaurant, food scraps from preparing a meal at home and the sour milk a family pours down the drain. Some amount of food is lost at nearly every stage of food production. In addition to food that’s uneaten in homes and stores, this includes crops left in the field, food that spoils in transportation, and all other food that doesn’t make it to a store. Food loss is the bigger category, and incorporates any edible food that goes uneaten at any stage. There are two main kinds of wasted food: food loss and food waste. At a time when 12 percent of American households are food insecure 4, reducing food waste by just 15 percent could provide enough sustenance to feed more than 25 million people, annually. 3 Uneaten food also puts unneeded strain on the environment by wasting valuable resources like water and farmland. 2 Food waste also has a staggering price tag, costing this country approximately $218 billion per year. Food is lost or wasted for a variety of reasons: bad weather, processing problems, overproduction and unstable markets cause food loss long before it arrives in a grocery store, while overbuying, poor planning and confusion over labels and safety contribute to food waste at stores and in homes.
1 Of the estimated 125 to 160 billion pounds of food that goes to waste every year, much of it is perfectly edible and nutritious. America wastes roughly 40 percent of its food.
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