Monday, December 5, 2005

UA prof: Americans wasting $100 billion of edible food yearly

The Arizona Republic

By pawing through people's garbage, professional dumpster diver Timothy W. Jones has concluded that Americans have no respect for the food they eat.

Many subsist on convenience foods, and 14 percent of the food people buy winds up in the trash.

Jones, a professor at the University of Arizona, contends that this dysfunctional relationship with food costs the U.S. economy $200 billion a year in waste and health care costs. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the annual cost of treating obesity in the United States is $100 billion. Another $100 billion worth of edible food is thrown out or unharvested.

Jones is one of a handful of "contemporary archaeologists" worldwide who study present cultures by examining their trash.

"People look at (food) as a commodity or a product to be consumed and not something that nourishes and sustains our bodies," he said.

A study by Jones and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2003 estimated that more than 50 million tons of edible food are wasted in the United States each year. The study looked at farming, retail establishments and homes. It found that:

• Twelve percent of American crops, valued at $20 billion, go unharvested due to difficulty in predicting demand.

• Retailers, including restaurants, throw away 35 million tons a year, valued at $30 billion.

• Households dump $43 billion worth of food a year, or about 14 percent of what they buy. That doesn't include plate scrapings.

Jones has proposed a network of government "food centers." Such centers would teach basic nutrition and food preparation to consumers and provide farmers with more detailed market information to reduce crop loss. The centers also could coordinate food relief efforts in emergencies.

In August, Jones outlined his proposal for the Arizona Food Center to members of Arizona's Joint Legislative Committee on Hunger. The legislators agreed to pursue the concept, but made no commitment for the $500,000 a year that Jones said it would take to operate the center.

"If we educate kids, they will be better consumers and they will have better nutrition their whole lives," said Rep. Pete Hershberger, R-Tucson, co-chairman of the committee.

Jones said that a 25 percent reduction in obesity and food waste could pump $50 billion a year into the U.S. economy.

While the amount is small compared with the annual U.S. gross domestic product of $11.7 trillion, it is significant. Tracy Clark, associate director of the Bank One Economic Outlook Center at Arizona State University, pointed out that savings in food costs would be more significant to lower-income households.

Jones found that consumers believe they are healthier and more frugal than they are.

He found that American households throw away 1.28 pounds of food a day, not including scraps that go down the garbage disposer or into the compost pile.

Vegetables make up 27 percent of the food trash. Packaged foods in their original containers and with valid expiration dates constituted 14 percent. Hispanic households are more frugal and throw away 25 percent less food than non-Hispanics, Jones found.

Jones says that people often buy fresh vegetables because they think they are eating healthfully. But many then go home, pop a frozen pizza in the oven and throw the vegetables out.

Ellie Mulkern, a Phoenix mother of three, says she wants to prepare healthful meals for her family, but rarely has the time. So she turns to prepared foods. She says she regularly throws out fresh foods she never got around to preparing.

Mulkern and her husband are working on a bag of tangerines she recently bought.

"The kids won't eat them, and they're going bad before we can eat them," she said.

Restaurants and convenience stores also may not be aware of how much food is wasted.

"They believe the 'shrinkage' is due to theft," Jones said.

But based on his study, the culprit is more likely waste.

Convenience stores have increased the amount of fresh and prepared foods they offer. Jones found that more than 26 percent of these foods wound up in the garbage. He says better training would allow employees to handle food correctly, more closely estimate demand and prepare appropriate amounts.

"They throw food out while it is still good and prepare more food than is necessary before lunch, special events and other peak-demand periods," he said.

Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, believes Jones' number may be high but agrees that food loss is a problem as convenience stores expand their offerings in an attempt to boost profits.

"It used to be a business where products sat on the shelves until they sold," Lenard said. "That's not the case with fresh food, and until convenience stores learn to operate more like restaurants, there is a potential for food waste."

He said convenience stores are increasingly hiring people with restaurant experience to run their fresh-food business. They also are striking deals with restaurant chains to take over the food handling.

"We used to be gas stations that sold food," Lenard said. "Now we are becoming restaurants that sell gas."

Fast-food restaurants throw out 10 percent of the food they prepare. Jones found that small "mom and pop" restaurants and convenience stores had much lower rates of waste than chain restaurants did.

"Their employees have been there longer, and their owners tend to be more in tune with the nuances of their businesses," Jones said.

But, he said smaller fast-food chains had much higher waste rates than the larger ones, sometimes throwing out 50 percent of their food.

Supermarkets have made an effort to reduce the rate of food waste, Jones said, saying that the rate is less than 1 percent. Still, it's a huge problem.

At Chandler-based Bashas' Markets Inc., a team constantly monitors what its stores stock and prepare in order to cut down on waste. Spokeswoman Diana Medina said the stores try to donate unsold merchandise to local food banks.

Much of the waste in the farming sector, Jones said, is due to crops that go unharvested or are plowed under for economic reasons.

Because of inconsistencies in predicting market prices, farmers often plow under marginally profitable crops rather than risk losing money on a harvest. Government subsidies encourage overproduction. A focus on high-profit products such as broccoli crowns and specialty salad mixes also contributes to waste.

Labor also is an issue. In Yuma, farmers are leaving some crops in the fields because they can't find workers to pick them.