We do it that Americans bewilder out a lot of food for thought , but , hey , why are we doing it ? A new survey try out something novel to enter it out : It asks us .
The survey ( which is less an endeavour at pinpointing actual food waste number and more an attempt at work out out what ’s behind it ) was put together by research worker at Johns Hopkins and just published inPLOS One . Things started off on a mellow note , with almost all respondents at least engender within the park of the genuine amount of food Americans waste ( it ’s over one - third of the total food supply , or approximately 140 trillion nutritionist’s calorie ) .
https://gizmodo.com/americans-waste-over-140-trillion-calories-of-food-a-ye-1533279810
Alas , it was all too beautiful to last , as 3/4 of all respondent then went on to remark that — while most other Americans may be wasting their solid food — such roguery never went on under their roofs .
In other words , everyone but me is the problem — a position which they then quick undercut by go down the rabbit yap of the arbitrary and rambling process of how they actually decide which foods to throw out . think this little flow of cognizance novel , tentatively arrange to publish under the working statute title Hey , What Do I Do With This Milk ? : A Journey of Self - Discovery :
“ Most common was “ use my sens , ” report by 72 % of respondent ; 39 % report using the “ consumption by ” date ; 22 % the “ betray by ” date [ an indicant used by store , leaving a buffer of clip when products still rest high caliber ] ; 18 % reported thinking about how long the milk had been open ; and 12 % report believe about how the milk had been stored ”
Of of course , it ’s no adult surprisal that when asked to assess their own behavior , people tend to underreport anything that could be perceive as electronegative ; that ’s what people do . So why should the disconnect between how much food Americans cogitate they themselves waste and actually waste bother us ?
Because a mickle of the solutions to nutrient waste material ( at least at the consumer point ) are fairly simple behavioral changes : thing like buy a fiddling less nutrient on shopping stumble in the first topographic point , understanding what expiration date really mean , and love where to donate unwanted food before it spoils . But as long as we believe that wasting food for thought is other people ’s trouble and not our own , we ’ll just keep on doing it .
Image : A tip into a food waste binful behind a market /Foerster .
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