Food does not equal Waste.

I may have mentioned the following statistic before (In fact, I know I have touched on this subject in my Michael Pollan rant) -- But, it is so ridiculous that I feel it can be emphasized again. I read it in an issue of the Economist last year: Americans waste 40% of there food.

First of all that sounds completely absurd. How can we possibly waste almost half of our food? Especially considering all of the people who are starving in this world? It's as if we are playing a very sick joke on the rest of the planet.

Anyway, this came to mind a few weeks ago, while I was at lunch with a friend (who shall remain nameless!) and I mentioned this very blog. He asked me to write about him and I said sure--what do you have to say about food? He didn't have anything to tell me, so the conversation turned.

As we were getting up to leave, I had finished my sandwich and went to through away the wrapper (I know, how can I even say anything when I am contributing to the landfill with to-go food, sorry!!) and he did the same. However, he had not finished his salad and sandwich that he ordered and proceeded to through away the remains--about 40% of his meal. Well, needless to say, I had a lot to say at that point (I never did learn to keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to my self...)

I realized as I started spewing about the Economist, starving children in Africa, and how could he throw away such good food? that this was exactly the problem. When people decide they are done eating, they just leave the rest--to be thrown away, to go bad in the fridge, to go back to kitchen...but ultimately, that food is wasted. And if everyone does that to their meals (or the majority of them) then it soon adds up, and we as Americans are wasting nearly half of our food.

This is not intentionally trying to attack the integrity of my friend here, he is just a textbook example of this issue. So, my friend, you have made the blog. Sorry that it's not the in the best light, next time hopefully you will have a more positive review!