40 % of US food produced is wasted – what is the impact ?

Posted on September 3, 2012 by aviyer2010

A paper produced by NRDC called “Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill”, suggests that 40 % of US food produced or $ 165 billion of value is wasted. This wasted food generates 25 % of methane emissions, but also wastes the water and energy required to cultivate and process the food. The study estimated that reducing waste just 15 % could feed 25 million citizens. How should the supply chain participants, all the way to the customer, be incented to reduce this waste ? Should manufacturers change pack sizes to reduce waste, and if so, how can this be coordinated? How should consumers be alerted to the cost associated with the wasted food and how to balance it against the convenience of disposal ?

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This entry was posted in Operations Management, Supply Chain Issues, Sustainability and tagged Consumers, Cost, Food, manufacturing, Supply Chain, Sustainable, waste. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to 40 % of US food produced is wasted – what is the impact ?

Geetanjali Sridharan says:

September 3, 2012 at 4:39 pm

Thanks to third world, US has food not only to eat but also to dump….

Reply
Mangesh says:

September 3, 2012 at 6:08 pm

In the US, it is clearly a problem caused due to optimizing profits as against minimizing waste. It hits you every time you order your first meal here after coming from India. You are served food for three people. Since the number of poor and malnourished families is not a concern, nobody has really looked at that problem. In countries like India, clearly, reducing waste has much higher incentives. But there, it is a problem of infrastructure.
Even if smaller pack sizes are made, it is cheaper to make one 5 pound bag than several 16 oz ones and people will automatically be incentivized to buy larger packs. If reducing waste is a priority, subsidies must be given to smaller packs to make them attractive helping people to buy what they need.

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- aviyer2010 says:
  
  September 3, 2012 at 10:44 pm
  
  Hi Mangesh: A followup article in the Economist (September 1, 2012) estimates that 40 % of the food grown in India rots on its to the market. So the US has an efficient distribution but consumer level waste, India has an inefficient distribution system that wastes food before it gets to the market. Much to fix in both places.
  
  Reply
  - Mangesh says:
    
    September 5, 2012 at 4:54 pm
    
    Absolutely! Lot of interesting steps being taken … again by companies. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEMPOWERMENT/Resources/14647_E-choupal-web.pdf