The progressive increase of food waste in America and its environmental impact.
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Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 19946359.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0007940 and PMC identifier 2775916.
- Licence recorded as CC0.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Food waste contributes to excess consumption of freshwater and fossil fuels which, along with methane and CO(2) emissions from decomposing food, impacts global climate change. Here, we calculate the energy content of nationwide food waste from the difference between the US food supply and the food consumed by the population. The latter was estimated using a validated mathematical model of metabolism relating body weight to the amount of food eaten. We found that US per capita food waste has progressively increased by approximately 50% since 1974 reaching more than 1400 kcal per person per day or 150 trillion kcal per year. Food waste now accounts for more than one quarter of the total freshwater consumption and approximately 300 million barrels of oil per year.
Medical subject headings
- Food
- Refuse Disposal