Food waste and food insecurity rising amid coronavirus panic - National Geographic

This story was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, a nonprofit investigative news organization.In the best of times, the United States wastes 40 percent of its food annually, amounting to 70 billion tons. The collective response to the coronavirus pandemic, from panic buying at grocery stores to restaurant closures, is bound to inflate that percentage, food loss experts say, at a time when food insecurity is on the rise.The biggest source of food waste in America is households, where produce wilts, milk spoils, and leftovers lurk at the back of the fridge until they are tossed. Now, anxious consumers who have been hoarding food may discover there’s no way they can eat everything they’ve bought. Says Frank Franciosi, of the U.S. Composting Council, “We may see municipal curbside collection of food waste go up as more people eat in or take out.”Indeed, San Francisco, which has long collected both residential and commercial food scraps from curbsides, has already seen an impact.“People are cooking more at home,” says Robert Reed, of Recology, the company that handles the city’s discards. “Tonnages of food scraps from single-family homes and apartments are up.” New York City’s curbside collection of food scraps has also seen an uptick over the past two weeks.Waste at restaurants—where Americans typically spent about half their food dollars before the coronavirus hit—is plummeting as eateries shut down. But it’s likely to rise at those shifting to a take-out-only model.