WASTED FOOD, WASTED ENERGY ACROSS THE PLANET

UK, Australiu & US

According to a recent report published by the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA�, more than a pound of food is thrown away every time someone eats out in the United Kingdom. This amounts to more than 600,000 tons of food waste annually or 22 tons, on average, per eating establishment. The report points to two major culprits: overly sized portions reminiscent of U.S. fare and waste in the kitchen that gets tossed out during food preparation. The report also reveals that British households throw away 12 million tons of food every year at a cost to the economy of more than $19 billion. Manufacturers waste another 5 million tons, with the entire catering industry - including pubs and catering facilities in offices and sports venues - throwing away another 3 million tons. Retailers are responsible for another 1.4 tons of food waste annually.

Down Under in Australia, the Willoughby City Council has joined forces with the Government of New South Wales' (NSW) Love Food Hate Waste Program to tackle the issue. NSW residents produce 800,000 tons of food waste annually, equal to about $2.5 billion or $l,000/household. Workshops to curb food waste will focus on better meal planning, shopping with a lisi in hand (versus compulsive shopping) and how to utilize leftovers. "Throwing away food wastes the energy, water and natural resources used to grow, package, transport and market that food," says Lisa Corbyn, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW Director General.

And across the pond in the U.S., the same connection between wasted food and wasted energy is being made as analysts point out that the U.S. consumes more energy in food it throws away than some countries consume in total all year. A study first published on the web July 21 in Environmental Science & Technology calculated the imbedded energy in food production from agriculture, transportation, processing, food sales, storage and preparation for 2007 at 8080 � 760 trillion BTU. With the U.S. throwing away approximately 25 percent of its food, the wasted energy is about 2 percent of total annual national energy consumption, according to the study.