Wasted Food, Wasted Energy
“Wasting food isn’t just bad in its own right, it also represents a profound waste of energy.” Scientific American reports on the amount of oil needed to support the food supply.
“We Americans waste over a quarter of all our food. That’s according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I think of all the fruits and vegetables I buy that rot, or bread that gets moldy before I can eat it. And then there’s all the food that gets tossed from restaurants and groceries. It takes about 1.4 billion barrels of oil to grow, harvest, preserve, package and transport the U.S. food supply. So wasting food means wasting energy. How much? A study published in this month’s issue of the journal Environmental Science and Technology found out: roughly 350 million barrels of oil, or more than 2 quadrillion British thermal units of energy.”
