{"id":2383,"date":"2009-12-30T10:38:36","date_gmt":"2009-12-30T14:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=2383"},"modified":"2009-12-30T10:38:36","modified_gmt":"2009-12-30T14:38:36","slug":"indulging-in-wasteful-eating-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/12\/30\/indulging-in-wasteful-eating-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"Indulging in wasteful eating habits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As many of us once again rouse ourselves from festivities filled with an overabundance of food, it might be sombering to ponder that a recent PLoS ONE <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> suggests that nearly 40 percent of food in the United States is wasted.\u00a0 As noted in a recent Science<\/em>NOW article<\/a>, physiologist Kevin Hall and mathematician Carson Chow, both at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (<\/span>NIDDK<\/span><\/a>), calculated the energy content of nationwide food waste from the difference between the US food supply and the food consumed by the population.\u00a0 They used a mathematical model of metabolism relating body weight to amount of food eaten.\u00a0 The result: in 2003, 1450 calories per capita, or 39 percent of available food\u00a0was wasted.\u00a0 The <\/span>U.S. Department of Agriculture <\/span><\/a>puts the figure at 27 percent, based on interviews with consumers and producers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The authors point out that in addition to the food itself, freshwater used to grow food and fossil fuels used to transport it are also wasted.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Science<\/em>NOW article quotes Greg Keoleian, Co-Director of the <\/span>Center for Sustainable Systems <\/span><\/a>as saying:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

If it [food] was more expensive, waste would be reduced.\u00a0 Waste and overconsumption is the key issue affecting the sustainability of the U.S. food system.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Makes me think a good New Year\u2019s resolution might be to be more vigilant about using what\u2019s already in the \u2018fridge and pantry before running out to buy more food.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hall, K., Guo, J., Dore, M., & Chow, C. (2009). The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and Its Environmental Impact PLoS ONE, 4<\/span> (11) DOI: 10.1371\/journal.pone.0007940<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As many of us once again rouse ourselves from festivities filled with an overabundance of food, it might be sombering to ponder that a recent PLoS ONE study suggests that nearly 40 percent of food in the United States is wasted.\u00a0 As noted in a recent ScienceNOW article, physiologist Kevin Hall and mathematician Carson Chow, both at the National Institute…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[440,441,442],"class_list":["post-2383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-food-consumption","tag-food-production","tag-us-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}