Green Leftovers

Leftovers for lunch? Sounds great for the planet. The Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy estimates that 2150 trillion kilojoules of energy is discarded each year in the U.S. in the form of wasted food.  That's 25% of the total amount of food produced that is lost each year.  These numbers are generated off the most recent food-waste data recorded way back in 1995, which means that these numbers are probably conservative estimates. Food was generally more expensive then, and the numbers don't account for fishing and farm related food that is wasted during production. 

Facts like these might make that skirt steak from the other night's barbeque look like an awesome sandwich tomorrow.

Image by lunauna on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing