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
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