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Waste of a precious resource.....food!

Travelling in the USA it is more than dismaying to see the waste of food. Waste of water - huge glasses of water which are, in the main, not drunk, or at least very little, when served with meals - and piles of food left on plates. The meals themselves are, in the first place, far too large. It is no wonder that obsesity is rife. It is distressing to think that whilst people in many places around the world are dying of starvation, or go to bed each day hungry, the world is generally wasting an enormous amount of food.....as this piece from the IHT so clearly details.
Last week, the British retailer Marks & Spencer introduced a new packaging strip aimed at making strawberries shipped in from overseas last two days longer. Eventually, the company hopes to use the technology on all types of berries. Marks & Spencer says that because its strawberries will stay fresh longer, consumers can reduce food waste at home.
This is a modest initiative, but it is the latest in a difficult global battle against food waste. Around the world, a staggering one-third of food — or about 1.3 billion tons each year — is wasted, a study commissioned by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimated last year.
Environmentalists have campaigned aggressively against the waste of water and energy, but little attention is paid to the squandering of a product, food, that uses plenty of both.
The Food and Agriculture research, which was carried out at the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, estimated that in Europe and North America, 280 to 300 kilograms of food, or 620 to 660 pounds, per person are wasted each year. That is more than twice the figure for developing regions like sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
In the developed world, consumers account for about one-third of the waste, discarding even food that is still edible.

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