Reported
Agriculture’s Dependence on Child Labor Persists — As Corporate Accountability Remains Lax
Food•9 min read
Explainer
3 billion pounds of produce is thrown away every year—just in California. Another 20 million pounds of food is left in commercial fields across America to rot after the harvest (usually because it’s not profitable for big agriculture to clean up after themselves). All told, 1 in 4 calories produced in America are never eaten. In 2017, total food industry sales in the U.S. was $2.1 trillion. If you distribute the food waste equally across the entire industry, it would amount to over $500 billion, nearly as much as the U.S. spends on its military. And since the U.S. uses 41% of its land for agriculture, that makes 10% of the country’s agricultural land a waste. For reference, 10% is just larger than the state of Texas.
Explainer • Food • Food Waste
Words by Sentient Media
3 billion pounds of produce is thrown away every year—just in California. Another 20 million pounds of food is left in commercial fields across America to rot after the harvest (usually because it’s not profitable for big agriculture to clean up after themselves).
All told, 1 in 4 calories produced in America are never eaten. In 2017, total food industry sales in the U.S. was $2.1 trillion. If you distribute the food waste equally across the entire industry, it would amount to over $500 billion, nearly as much as the U.S. spends on its military. And since the U.S. uses 41% of its land for agriculture, that makes 10% of the country’s agricultural land a waste. For reference, 10% is just larger than the state of Texas.
Want more from the food waste economy? Read the Sentient Media exclusive here.
Investigation
Climate•6 min read
Solutions
Food•9 min read