USA – food waste costing economy US$100 billion, study finds

It‘‘s just a matter of time before those staggering hikes in oil prices are translated into higher costs for food, reflecting the higher costs farmers pay for running diesel harvesters and using oil-based fertilizers and pesticides.



Timothy Jones, a University of Arizona archaeologist, says that makes the results of his studies of how much food is lost and thrown away very timely.



For the last eight years, Jones has spearheaded a government-financed study that has documented how more than 40 percent of food grown in the United States is lost or thrown away – at a cost of at least $100 billion annually to the economy and over-taxing the soil and environment.



He said Americans – from the farm to the kitchen – aren‘‘t aware of the huge amounts of food losses, and cooks often don‘‘t think about the food they waste. Jones said even the experts were wrong – by a factor of two, in fact – in guessing how much food is lost through the food chain, and he said at least half of the food discarded isn‘‘t really bad and could have been safely consumed.



“We‘‘ve lost touch with food,” said Jones at his Tucson office of the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. “People are totally unaware of food; it‘‘s true of everybody from the citrus industry to the person who takes a plate of spaghetti and meatballs they could have kept and instead throw it away.”



Jones said Americans believe in the myth that food is cheap and plentiful. But he argued it‘‘s not cheap considering the labor and effort taken to grow it, and the costs of fuel to harvest and bring it to market. He also argued that there are no easily used lands left for new farms, and there are environmental costs from depleting soils and soil erosion that comes with intensive farming.



The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 12 percent of today‘‘s average household budget goes to buying food, but Jones said those estimates were made before the price of oil tripled from $20 a barrel last year to more than $60 a barrel currently.



Those oil-price increases, he said, will soon be translated into higher costs for food as oil is used not only to make diesel for tractors and harvesters, but also is the base from which fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides are made.



“I think we‘‘re looking at 15 to 20 percent of household budgets in a few years because of these energy costs,” he said, pointing out that people can save money by throwing less away.



The food industry is increasingly aware of the costs of throwing away products headed for the market, which is affecting profit margins.



“Huge, staggering dollars are lost” to discarded produce, said Ron McCormick, vice president for produce for the giant supermarket chain Wal-Mart. He said it‘‘s not unusual for boxes of perishable produce to be misplaced in huge warehouses even while shelves in stores are empty and customers have to shop elsewhere. McCormick said Wal-Mart is relying on new radio-controlled frequency chips to sort out its backroom problems and to try to ensure that a stream of fresh produce is always available for sale.



There are also large losses in restaurant salad and buffet bars. Mickey Dedajic, an 18-year-old immigrant who lived off rotting potatoes and rice during the siege of Sarajevo more than a decade ago, said he‘‘s astonished at the waste of food in America after working as a waiter and bus boy at an Alexandria, Va., hotel. “Most of the time we run out of food, and there‘‘s more food in the garbage than on the buffet,” he said. “People just aren‘‘t thinking about it.”



While previous USDA studies looked at plate waste to judge the amount of food discarded, Jones examined garbage from stores an