homeWelcome, sign in or click here to subscribe.login
     


 

 

News


Subscriber content preview

May 6, 2016

Strange But True!

Q. What's a decidedly unique way to think about “food waste”?

A. When the U.S. Department of Agriculture does the math, the average daily food intake in the U.S. comes to about 2,100 kilocalories (kcal) per person, compared to a food supply of 3,600 kcal per person, says Vaclav Smil in IEEE Spectrum magazine. Subtracting intake from supply equals a loss of 1,500 kcal, “which means about 40 percent of our food goes to waste.” That's enough to provide adequate nutrition to about 200 million people, or the entire population of Brazil, the world's sixth most populous country.


 
. . .


To read this story in full login or purchase a subscription.



Previous columns:



Email or user name:
Password:
 
Forgot password? Click here.