"Americans waste 27 percent of all food available for human consumption"

[robinlynne]

I jsut saw this sentence in the middle of a fluffy new york times article, about nothing important. It stopped me cold in my tracks.
here's the link, although the subject is "how to shop cheaper at your grocery store", and says nothing new, except for that one sent4ence:

"Americans waste 27 percent of all food available for human consumption."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/business/yourmoney/28money.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

[flvegan]

1. Bet it's more than that.

Considering the amount of consumable goods go into making a lesser resource such as feedlot beef.

But then, the Amazon was overrated anyway, right?

Right?

[Gabi Hayes]

2. I just threw away more than half the dandelion greens I bought

a few weeks ago

bleeeahhh

yeahhh, I paid for them

[pop goes the weasel]

3. sounds like rectal statistics

Seriously, who pulled that out of their butt? We'd have to be wasting most of the food we have in order to waste that large a percentage. Sure, a lot of produce goes bad before it is eaten, but a lot more is frozen or canned. Food that goes bad without being purchased at all might get tossed. Or it might get used for livestock, which often happens. If it is simply "extra," it can be donated to food programs, and often is.

Seeing as how that statistic was being used to push convenience foods, I am going to be skeptical about where it really came from and why.