Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Food Riots and Waste

An apple a day gets thrown away. In fact, 4.4 million apples get thrown away in the UK every day, the majority of which are still perfectly edible. This is according to information released this week by the UK government funded Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

Between the farm gate and my plate, half of the food produced is wasted. Enough from the UK alone to meet half the import needs of the entire African continent. A while back Japan gave a big food donation to Africa including $3 million of food to Burundi. We throw away 40 times more than that in a year. According to the University of Michigan (PDF), it takes 7 times more energy to get food to the average American stomach than it gives you. How much fossil fuels does it cost to get all the other stuff we’re used to eating? (...more)

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