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Wasted food hurts many

How would you like a 14 percent discount on all your food purchases? Research by Dr. Timothy Jones at the University of Arizona indicates that the average U.S. household wastes about 14 percent of its food purchases. On a nationwide basis, this adds up to $43 billion. When Jones adds other sources of food waste onto household losses, he estimates that the nation wastes nearly half its food.

Question: Where is all the food going to waste?

Answer: Jones' research finds that food waste occurs at many steps in the food chain from farm to fork. Some agricultural losses are unavoidable, although they have been reduced over the years by efficient farming and transport systems. The greatest agricultural waste is due to unpredictable commodity markets that place a farmer in a financial bind where it is cheaper to plow a field under than to harvest and transport a crop to market.

Jones' group is now researching retail food waste, which he estimates totals tens of billions of dollars on a national level annually.

The concern is not just financial. Cutting food waste could reduce landfill use, soil depletion and the use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.

In addition, channeling extra food to those in need could have a major impact on reducing food insecurity. The Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in November that more than one in 10 U.S. households experienced food insecurity during 2003.

Q: How are food security and insecurity defined?

A: The USDA defines food security as "access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life." Households are categorized as food secure, food insecure without hunger, or food insecure with hunger, based on a USDA survey. In 2003, 11.2 percent of U.S. households were food insecure, and 3.5 percent experienced food insecurity with hunger.

Q: How does Hawaii rank?

A: Based on the USDA research, Hawaii is not significantly different in terms of national averages for food insecurity overall and for food-insecure households experiencing hunger.

These national measures of food insecurity are a political hot potato. Many researchers in food insecurity consider them very conservative. Dr. Joda Derrickson, director of Kalihi Palama Women Infants and Children's Program and researcher in food security, stresses that financial pressures on low wage earners in Hawaii create a great deal of chronic food insecurity and make it difficult for many people to afford healthy foods.

Derrickson says groups such as food pantries and soup kitchens have been and continue to be critical for preventing hunger in Hawaii. But the ultimate solution is implementing state laws and policies that promote financial security for low wage earners, especially for heads of single-parent households.

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