The cycle of food waste

Comment: Very interesting article on food waste from the Wall Street Journal. Click through for full article plus the graphics!

Throwing Away Our Food

Excerpt:

1. Left in the field: "Farm losses are generally higher for hand-picked fruit and perishable vegetables than for machine-harvested commodity crops like corn and wheat; about 9% of commodity crops planted in the U.S. aren't harvested."
   
2. Lost in transit: "In-transit losses reach 10% to 15% for some crops, with tomatoes, leafy greens and grapes among the most fragile."
   
3. Supermarket sweep: "U.S. supermarkets throw away an estimated 30 million pounds of food every day—damaged goods, expired products, dented boxes and the like. "
   
4. Today's special - tomorrow's trash: "reasons like overproduction, spoilage, expiration, trimmings, burned items, catering leftovers and contamination"
   
5. Into the landfill: "Food scraps are the second-largest component of the national waste stream, making up 19% of what we put into landfills."

Comment: Kathee (wife) says - "we need more gleaners" (Deuteronomy 24:21 )