Food waste in America
Just how much food do Americans waste? Here are some numbers: The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans throwing away nearly 40 million tons of food every year. That is equal to more than $161 billion. But the truth is that 37 million people across America — including 11 million children, are suffering from food shortage.
More than 80 percent of Americans give up perfectly good food simply because they misunderstand expiration (到期) labels. Labels like "sell by", "use by", or "best by" are confusing to people. In reality, a majority of food thrown away is perfectly safe to eat - about 90 percent of tossed food can still be consumed, according to The Economics Review at New York University.
And this contributes to a general culture of not valuing it the way other cultures around the globe do. Americans have never gone through food shortage crisis in its short history, thus a large number of people take food for granted.
To solve the problem of food waste in the United States, the government sets a goal to cut U.S. food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030. In this way, the Americans will have a better understanding on the importance of reducing food loss and waste from an early age.
Waste can be avoided by improving product development, storage, shopping/ ordering, marketing, labeling, and cooking methods. If excess food is unavoidable, recover it to donate to hunger-relief organizations so that they can feed people in need. Food that cannot be consumed by man can be recycled into other products such as animal feed and clothing.
A. Why do Americans waste so much of their food?
B. Food in the United States is plentiful and less costly.
C. The plan aims to get help from public and private schools.
D. The government has to play a major role in reducing food waste.
E. It is reported that 8 million people get sick from eating the wrong food.
F. To avoid the potential of getting sick, they'll just send it to the garbage.
G. Still, the best way to cut back on food loss is to not create it in the first place.
