How’s this for an astonishing statistic: 40 percent of all food produced in the U.S. is wasted. At first glance, it’s easy to interpret this to mean that we’re talking about food that consumers and restaurants throw away. Upon further investigation, though, I found that the number represents all food produced in the U.S. that is wasted somewhere between farm and table. That’s billions of dollars of food never consumed, not to mention 40 trillion liters of water used in food processing that goes down the drain, according to a Stockholm International Water Institute study. Let’s not forget the methane created when perishables just sit in landfills, either. In order to figure out if you’re part of the problem, think about your own practices.

这项惊人的统计数据感觉如何：美国生产的所有食品有40%被浪费了。乍一看，很容易将其理解为我们在谈论消费者和餐馆扔掉的食物。但经过进一步调查研究，我发现该数字代表着所有美国生产的食品在农场和餐桌的某处被浪费掉了。这是从未消耗的数十亿美元食物，更不用说40万亿公升用于食品加工的水进入下水道，据斯德哥尔摩国际水资源研究所的研究发现。我们也别忘了易腐物品仅在垃圾填埋场就能产生的甲烷。为了找出你是否是该问题的一部分，思考一下自己的行为。

Here’s how to not only reduce waste, but save thousands of household dollars

这不仅关乎如何减少浪费，也是节约成千上万的美元开支。