Turkey Talk: Eat Your Leftovers

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

The holiday is over and now I’m reminding you to eat your leftovers. ReFED, a national nonprofit with a focus on reducing waste in the food system, estimates that 312 million pounds of food was and is going to be wasted by Americans this year linked to the Thanksgiving holiday. That’s the equivalent of wasting over ten pounds of food for a ten-person dinner.

There are harsh realities that come along with a waste this large. The nonprofit reports that the 312 million pounds could feed 38.3 food insecure people seven times over. On an ecological front, looking at the waste in terms of greenhouse gases, it is equivalent to driving your car 73,109 times around the equater. Financially, it’s roughly $2.08 lost per person, over $20 wasted per ten-person dinner, and about $608 million thrown out the window when we look at the entirety of the American population.

Numbers sober you up? Visit ReFED.org for tips on tidying up your food habits.