Americans Toss $165 Billion Worth of Food in the Trash Annually - East Idaho News
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Americans Toss $165 Billion Worth of Food in the Trash Annually

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GETTY 082212 Garbage?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1345626550379Dorling Kindersley RF/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Americans obviously aren’t listening to mom.  Otherwise, they’d be finishing everything on their dinner plates rather than wasting up to 40 percent of the nation’s food supply annually.

The shocking statistics from the Natural Resources Defense Council reveal that each member of an average family of four leaves 20 pounds of food untouched per month, adding up to a total $2,275 in squandered grub per year.

That means $165 billion of food gets tossed in the trash, which contributes to overflowing landfills where food is easily the top portion of solid waste.

This problem is really an American phenomenon as people in this country leave behind 10 times more uneaten meals than Southeast Asians.  

Europeans have begun programs to educate people about needlessly wasted food.  However, nothing like that is happening in the U.S. even in the face of record droughts that will likely push up prices at the supermarket before the end of the year.

Another shocker from the Natural Resources Defense Council is that $15 billion of produce is left unsold annually as much as the government tries to emphasize better nutrition to reduce Americans’ expanding waistlines.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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