U.S. wastes $162 billion worth of food every year

About 60 million metric tons of food worth about $162 billion is wasted each year in the U.S., says a report by Resources Action Program, an antiwaste organization in Britain, Ron Nixon reports for The New York Times. "About 32 million metric tons of it end up in municipal landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local governments."

That's particularly troubling, considering a report released in January by the Southern Education Foundation said that for the first time in at least 50 years, more than 50 percent of U.S. public school students are from low-income families, and some of the highest concentrations of poverty are located in states with large rural populations.

The U.S. isn't the only country wasting food. "The report estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year," Nixon writes. "Reducing food waste from 20 to 50 percent globally could save $120 billion to $300 billion a year by 2030, the report found." (Read more)