shifting habits , shifting minds
In 2013 , The Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO ) of the United Nations conducted a study that laid out the financial , environmental , and healthrelated cost of food waste in the world . The numbers across the board are so high that it is truly hard to take in . Over $ 1 trillion of food is wasted , totaling 30 per cent of the global food supply . Besides the retail losses , the FAO determined that an additional $ 700 billion worth of natural resources is lost , with water constituting about $ 172 billion of those losses . Other costs include $ 42 billion in deforestation and a devastating $ 429 billion in losses related to greenhouse gases . The health care-related costs total more than $ 150 billion . The FAO numbers have a sinister implication . If the $ 150 billion in health care costs , which is believed to be pesticide-related , represents the food that is wasted , the cost of pesticide-related illness totals over $ 500 billion for the global food supply .
“ The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture announced in 2015 a goal to cut food waste in half by 2030 .”
66 Maximum Yield USA | February 2017