HUNGER IN AMERICA. FOOD WASTE IN AMERICA

HUNGER IN AMERICA According to Tufts University professor J. Larry Brown, who chaired the Physician Task Force on Hunger in America, of the 240 million Americans in 1989: An estimated 20 million (one in 12) experience hunger at least some days each month. Nearly 1.5 million children are malnourished. Officially, 32.4 million Americans live at or below the poverty level - measured by their inability to purchase an adequate diet. Of these poor, 18 million receive food stamps. The remaining 14 million do not. The federal government denies one in four food-stamp applicants even though they meet the eligibility requirements. FOOD WASTE IN AMERICA: 20 percent of all foodstuff is lost between field and table, according to the controller general's report to Congress in 1977. Of this total, 137 million tons of food were wasted in 1977:

9 million tons left in the fields.

3 million tons lost in storage.

3 million tons lost in transportation.

6 million tons lost in processing.

32 million tons lost at the consumer level, including plate waste, overpreparation, spoilage, and over purchasing.