Carolyn Beans is a freelance science journalist living in Washington, D.C. She specializes in ecology, evolution and health.
In Washington, D.C., Peter Rabbit regularly challenges me to stop wasting food. On a billboard hovering beyond my local grocery store and on posters on bus stop shelters, he casually chomps on a carrot while leaning on big bold letters: “Better Ate Than Never.”
Food waste estimates vary, but according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which runs this national “Save the Food” campaign with the nonprofit Ad Council, up to 40 percent of food in America is lost each year. Producing this food requires up to about one-fifth of U.S. croplands, fertilizers and agricultural water. Once tossed, food becomes the No. 1 contributor, by weight, to U.S. landfills, where it releases methane, a greenhouse gas, while decaying.
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