A new study finds that Americans waste nearly a pound of food per person per day. And at the top of it is fruits and vegetables. Way below those is dairy, and meat waste is almost a third of what fruits and vegetables are.

People who believe they "eat more healthy" than others - the organic elite and vegetarians - have a food fetish for fresh vegetables. And Americans are told by government committees and pyramids they should want to eat vegetables, so they buy them and then throw them out when they start to spoil. When is the last time you threw out moldy pizza?

The results were determined by analysis of eight years of available food survey data, due to recent concern that claims about "fresh food" and "clean eating" were actually leading to a whole lot of illnesses and food waste, not to mention environmental impacts. Organic industry funded organizations like Environmental Working Group do society no favors by publishing a so-called "dirty dozen" list which claims only organic pesticides are safe. That leads to a lot of wasted food each April too.


Food fetish marketing uses this kind of imagery a lot. If she were really going to eat all that, she wouldn't weight the 105 lbs. she actually weighs.

Food waste isn't just a concern in the refrigerator. If we want to reduce waste, we need science solutions, but even there organic industry trade groups like Organic Consumers Association lobby against modern agriculture, which prevents pests and optimizes efficiency.

Using the U.S. Foodprint Model, the team determined that from 2007 to 2014, U.S. consumers discarded 150,000 tons of food daily—waste that corresponded to the yearly use of an estimated 30 million acres of land (7 percent of total U.S. harvested cropland), 780 million pounds of pesticide, 1.8 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer and 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigated water. Each represents potential costs to the environment and the farmers who dedicate their time, land and other resources to growing or raising food that’s meant to be eaten.

No one is seriously contending that you eat less fruits and vegetables. You should only buy what you will eat, and support farmers who use modern agricultural methods. Because less food waste when it's in the soil is good for the world too.