Wasted Food. Lost Revenue.

Wasted food. Lost revenue. Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, I spoke with Minnie Ringland, Manager of Climate & Insights with ReFED, a U.S.-based nonprofit working to catalyze the food system towards evidence-based action to stop food wasting.

Looking at the data, the United States generated 91.2 million tons of surplus food in 2023, which was 38% of total production. ReFED defines “surplus food” as all food that goes unsold or unused by a business or that goes uneaten at home…

“When food goes uneaten, the resources used to produce it go to waste as well.”

As I chatted with Minnie, I realized she is really good for getting a visual…

“If you imagine that all of our country’s surplus food is grown in one place, this mega-farm would cover an area the size of California and New York combined and that’s 16% of total cropland in the U.S. and it would consume as much water as California, New York, and Texas combined. And this wasteful farm essentially harvests enough food to fill a 40-ton tractor trailer every 15 seconds.”

Bottom line, she says it’s an imprudent use of our food supply chain, and it has enormous impacts across our climate and natural resources, food insecurity, and the economy. For more on their work to end loss and waste across the food system, visit ReFED.org.