And Bush blames India for the food crisis ...

This article is a real eye opener. In light of this, it's all the more astounding that George Bush accused people being able to afford food in India as being a major cause of the global food crisis. In addition to the nonsensical policy of pumping food into SUV fuel tanks in the form of ethanol-based fuel, this massive wastage of food in the United States starting from the grocery store to ending up in people's homes is the cause of the global food crisis.

The amount of food people throw away as described in this article is astounding. For example, let me compare the average American family (and assume there are five people in a family) with myself over the past 9 months:

Average - Grains 18.5 lbs / month for the family --> 1.68 kg per person (3.7 lbs)
Me - Grains --> ~ 1 kg over the past nine months --> 0.11 kg (~0.25 lbs) per month -- Consisting of half a loaf of bread that I had to throw away in March and about 500 g of cooked rice I had to throw away this week, which I felt really awful about

Average - Meat and fish - 10.4 lbs / month for the family --> 0.945 g per person (2.08 lbs)
Me - Meat and fish - 0 - I'm a vegetarian, so I don't buy meat or fish, so the question of throwing it away really doesn't arise

Average - Sweeteners - 15 lbs / month for the family --> 1.36 kg per person (3 lbs)
Me - 0 kg over the past nine months

Average - Fats and Oils - 8.6 lbs / month for the family --> 1.78 kg per person (3.91 lbs)
Me - 0 kg over the past nine months

Average - Fresh fruits and vegetables - 24 lbs / month for the family --> 2.18 kg per person (4.8 lbs)
Me - ~4.5 kg over the past nine months --> 0.5 kg per month (1.1 lbs)
-- Partly the reason why I stopped going to the Farmer's Market and buy frozen food now instead. I never used to get the time to cook the vegetables by the time they spoiled.

Average - Processed fruit and vegetables - 10.5 lbs / month for the family --> 0.95 kg per person (2.1 lbs)
Me - 0 kg over the past nine months

Average - Fluid milk - 22 lbs / month for the family --> 2 kg per person (4.4 lbs)
Me - 0 kg over the past nine months

Average - Other food - 12.8 lbs / month for the family --> 1.16 kg per person (2.56 lbs)
Me - 0 kg over the past nine months

The reason for this comparison isn't to be self-righteous or gloat over how little I waste. I, too, wasted way more than I should have, the ideal figure should be 0 in all these categories. Rather, the point of this exercise is to encourage people to compare their wastage with the average American family. If it's anywhere near similar, you should be making major changes to your food consumption habits. Even if it is drastically lower, you may still find ways in which you reduce wastage.