CONSIDER THE TOMATO... 31% of fresh tomatoes bought by U.S. households are thrown out—that's 21 tomatoes a year per person! $2.3 BILLION Throwing out that many tomatoes costs us a bundle— over $2.3 billion a year. If only it was just tomatoes... the cost of all U.S. household food waste = $166 BILLION! WASTED FOOD = WASTED RESOURCES U.S. FOOD WASTE ACCOUNTS FOR: Enough energy to power the country for more than a week. Enough land to feed the world's hungry. By making small shifts in how we shop, store, and prepare food, we can keep the valuable resources used to produce and distribute food from going to waste. Sources: USDA Economic Research Service,(ERS) Total and Per Capita Value of Food Loss in the United State (2012); USDA ERS , The Value of Retail- and Consumer- Level Fruit and Vegetable Losses in the United States (2011); Venkat, The Climate Change and Economic Impacts of Food Waste in the United States (2012): Hall et al, The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and Its Environmental Impacts (2009) &EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA-530-16-F-014-H February 2016 ------- |