Why Do Americans Waste So Much Food

Why do Americans waste so much food? The main reason Americans waste so much food is because they aren’t aware of their squandering. Food is not something the past few generations have grown up treasuring. Food is seen as plentiful and cheap, because it is. The US produces enough food for every American to eat twice the daily recommended amount of calories and food has never been cheaper.

If food cost more, maybe Americans would be more careful not to waste it. We spend less on food than any other country. See this chart: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/CPIFoodAndExpenditures/data/table97.htm

Another reason for waste is that portion sizes have skyrocketed, producing more leftovers at restaurants. With these massive plates of food and increased concerns about obesity, many folks don’t eat all of their meal. The whole ‘clean your plate’ mentality is a thing of the past. For a variety of reasons, many diners don’t take home their leftovers. Sociologically, some feel it’s ‘cheap’ to take leftovers home, while others don’t think an item will last until the next day. If it’s a huge salad with dressing on it, it won’t.

Once that food is served, legally, it can’t be donated or eaten by anyone else. Even if a diner doesn’t touch their meal, contamination concerns means nobody else can eat it. At best, it’ll be composted. But usually it winds up in a dumpster and, ultimately, a landfill.

Why do Americans not realize that they waste so much food? Primarily, Americans aren't aware of their waste because they can afford to be oblivious. Americans spend just 10 percent of their disposable income on food (USDA figures, 9.9 % in 2005). That amount creeps lower each year, as incomes have increased more quickly than food prices.

Because food is cheaper than it ever has been for Americans, there’s a feeling that you don’t need to be cautious about how much you waste. Among the people I’ve interviewed, the feeling is that cleaning your plate is something previous generations had to do. People who lived during the Depression or World War II will never forget how valuable food was as a commodity. For the most part, those who didn’t, see food as abundant.

See far right column of table 7 for historical perspective of food as percent of income: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/CPIFoodAndExpenditures/data/