We use a lot of energy producing, transporting, processing, storing and cooking food we don't eat. About 2150 trillion kilojoules worth a year, according to a recent study. That's more kilojoules than the United States could produce in biofuels. And it's more than we already produce in all the oil and gas extracted annually from the Gulf of Mexico.
In the comments section, most folks focused on how we all must compost or have pigs in the yard to eat up the food that has gone off in the 'fridge. Others focused on garden waste and turning that into biofuels. These are all important pieces of the discussion, but I feel like most folks missed the real point here. It's the giant trucks and vessels bringing every imaginable food product from around the world and the huge food processing plants that require tons of water and energy to operate, alongside the energy and materials it takes to make the packaging that will hold the food, that is sucking the earth's energy dry. Don't forget the massive amounts of fuel used to get to the megastores to buy the giant sizes of everything to stock up the two freezers in the basement (that run year 'round, of course). We might also point to the energy wasted across the U.S. and Canada from idling cars while they wait, sometimes impatiently, at drive-through windows for their packaged crap. Tim Horton's or Starbuck's drive-through window, anyone?
One comment on the Boing Boing piece gets at a piece of the problem nicely.
Having just spent a month here in the US with my nieces (from the UK) Even they are horrified at the portion sizes and packaging sizes of everything in the US. It is no surprise that so much is wasted when you are given more than you can eat and you can only buy packages containing more than you want! Address these two first and the wastage problem will reduce itself proportionately.
