Despite the enormous financial and
environmental costs of food production,
a staggering 25 to 40 percent of food that
leaves the farm in the United States is never eaten; it is instead lost as
waste at the retail, distribution, and household levels. If Americans cut
food waste by only 25 percent, we would save nearly 65 MMtCO2e
(counting only emissions related to production and distribution, and
excluding methane emissions from landfill decomposition).