Food Waste Infographic

Photos of people dying of famine in East Africa are heartbreaking. Hunger in America is also heartbreaking but inexcusable. According to worldHunger.Org, “In 2010, 17.2 million households, 14.5 percent of households (approximately one in seven), were food insecure, the highest number ever recorded in the United States.”

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Most hunger related facts do not include facts about food waste and distribution problems.

But according to Healthy Times Blog,

About 1/3 of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year; approximately 1.3 billion tonnes gets lost or wasted. Industrialized and developing countries waste roughly the same quantities of food – respectively 670 and 630 million tons. Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes). Fruits and vegetables, plus roots and tubers have the highest wastage rates of any food.

Here is an easy to understand infographic on food waste and why people shouldn’t go hungry or starve when we have food waste that can conceivably feed a continent.

So you can continue to tell your kids, “Do you know there are people starving in Africa?” but better than that, don’t waste your produce, meat, bread, and any items that are waiting to be cooked. Shop wisely and use up all your ingredients.

[via onlyinfographics]