Nearly half of Americans know about US's food waste problem, survey says
There has been plenty of attention on wasted food in America recently, but very few assessments of how Americans feel about the topic. That changed yesterday with the publishing of the first national consumer survey on wasted food in the United States.
There鈥檚 an abundance of findings to be gleaned from the聽, which surveyed 1,000-people. Let鈥檚 start with the good news: Americans have a decent sense that we waste a whole lot of food. A sizable portion (45 percent) of respondents knew that 40 percent of American food is wasted.聽
Even better, participants are keen to do something about the problem, said study leader Roni Neff, PhD. 鈥淎mericans are ready to address wasted food. They are relatively aware, concerned, and want to do more,鈥� Neff said. 鈥淔orty-three聽percent said it would be easy to reduce the amount of food their household wastes. So we have a real opportunity to build on that interest.鈥�
It鈥檚 worth noting, though, that such survey talk is cheap (and prone to exaggeration). Anyone can say they will make waste-reducing changes. The report did not seek to correlate words and deeds.
While Americans are aware of food waste in general, they don鈥檛 think they are particularly wasteful. A hefty 73 percent of respondents felt that they waste less than the average American. I'm no mathematician, but I'm pretty sure that's not statistically possible.
When it comes to motivations for reducing food waste 鈥渟aving money鈥� and 鈥渟etting an example for children鈥� were the two leading factors. Much less of a motivator: 鈥済reenhouse gases, energy, and water,鈥� which came in dead last, after choices like 鈥渕anaging household efficiently鈥� and 鈥済uilt about waste in general.鈥� As Neff noted, we now know that the environmental impact of food waste is a weak spot in public awareness.聽
The survey also asked what changes supermarkets and restaurants could make to help them minimize waste (Listen up,聽). Packaging topped respondents鈥� minds, with 鈥渕ore resealable packages鈥� and 鈥渕ore variety in product sizes鈥� coming in as the top two responses for retailers. As for helpful restaurant changes, the runaway winners were 鈥渙ffer half portions鈥� (paging聽) and 鈥渞outinely offer containers for leftovers.鈥澛�
One somewhat disturbing finding was that composting can undercut the food waste reduction. Of respondents who compost, 41 percent said wasting food doesn't bother them because they compost. Here鈥檚 proof that composting can be a hindrance to reducing wasted food, a聽聽higher priority.聽鈥淚 expected this to be an issue but did not expect this magnitude of a response,鈥� Neff said. 鈥淭his finding has real implications for composting programs and how they communicate with participants.鈥�
But let鈥檚 close on a positive note: when it comes to food waste, we鈥檙e all in this together. Neff鈥檚 research found that attitudes and stated behavior around wasted food remained steady across gender, race, generation, income, and educational lines. So in effect, we鈥檙e one nation, indivisible, with food waste progress needed for all.聽
