>> Finally tonight, from moldy
strawberries to Thanksgiving
leftovers.
Food waste is a part of daily
life in America.
According to the environmental
protection agency, it is
responsible for about 8% of
global greenhouse gas emissions.
Pbs weekly Isabella ja
billion reports on why so much
food goes to waited efforts to
stop -- to waste and efforts to
stop it.
>> In the pharmacy in
Massachusetts, it is harvest
season.
But ava knows that not all of
this process will end up in the
pharma stand -- farm stand.
>> We will start growing the
corn at different times but if
we have a super hot summer
sometimes all of it will be
ready all the same time and the
farmer does not have sufficient
customers or grocery stores or
whatever that can actually move
that much corn that quickly.
So they will just have more corn
than they literally know what to
do with.
>> And that is not the only
problem.
>> Sometimes a food that gets
left in the field is a little
too big or too small.
If you're selling potatoes to a
French fight factory they need
those potatoesto be a certain
size and shape and weight to
work with them in the machinery.
>> So, after months of tilling
land and tending to crops, all
this extra produce will
alternate league I on the vine.
>> Food waste is a very big
problem.
>> We are talking about
economics.
Don King, who lectures on the
environment at brown
universityknows this problem
well.
>> They also say pollution is a
sign of ways.
And that goes well beyond what
we are putting into our
landfills because 30% of food is
wasted or lost before even -- it
even gets to the retailer or
distributor.
>> Why are we seeing waste
happen on farms?
>> We're very mechanized, so
machines are specifically
designed, many of them, to only
harvest the top two thirds of a
plant.
>> That is because farmers do
not want machines getting
tangled in dirt.
And farmers also leave behind
proto's that is less attractive,
what's known as grade B.
>> Once that becomes grade B, it
loses almost all of its value.
It is not like it trust 10%, it
loses all most all the value so
farmers are facing this, in a
bad predicament.
They want the food to go to
others, but they have to pay
people to pick it and package it
and I have to get it on a truck
and get it to that donation
site.
All of this cost the farmer
money.
>> And king says the problem
goes far beyond the farm.
At every point in the supply
chain, more food is lost.
From manufacturing, restaurants,
grocery stores, and the worst
culprit -- consumers at home.
Added up one third of the food
supply in the U.S. Is lost or
wasted.
If food is exposed to air but it
is breaking down, it at least
has a chance of becoming
compost.
But when it breaks down in a
landfill, something else
happens.
Greenhouse gas.
>> It rots when it is not
exposed to oxygen .
And when it rots --
>> Because it is so piled up.
>> Exactly, your pilot on top of
each other so none of it is
exposed to air.
So, it does the exact opposite,
it turns into methane.
You are having a festering
methane pile that is 25 times
more potent than CO2.
>> And that is what we are
seeing when we see those -- pip
es sticking on the landfill to
let out the methane.
>> Yes.
>> King says so much food is
served away because it is
relatively inexpensive in the
U.S.
And because use by dates are
misleading.
>> Expiration dates are not set
by the U.S. Government.
Baby formula is the only food
product that actually has a
mandated Best Buy date.
Sometimes it says sell by.
Sometimes it just has the date.
>> King says these dates
describe how long the
manufact guarantees the
quality of the food rather
than how safe it is to eat.
>> There is a labeling problem
people throw away things they
think are bad, and it is really
not that way.
>> The average person throws at
anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000
every day, and the food is from
three days and weeks before the
self by date -- the sell by
date.
>> He founder and CEO of flash
food.
>> It is not just the story of
the retailer, it is also
consumers.
If we buy a water Miller and
there is one on the shelf, we
assume it is the worst one so
the grocer has to over stock the
shelves.
>> To mingus came up with an
idea, -- to mingus came up
with an idea, save the food --
Dominguez came up with an idea,
saving food.
He created an app or customers
can buy today's deals and
pick them up from special purple
fridges.
>> In terms of the volume, we
have diverted 50 million pounds
of food that would've likely end
up in landfills.
>> Back at the form, ava has
another way of rescuing
food.
Her program gathers produce that
remains after harvest.
It is a process called gleaning.
>> We are already past 400
pounds of corn.
And we will probably get over
1000 pounds.
>> Last year, they saved up to
250,000 pounds of food and
donated it to hunger relief.
It is an old one solution to a
modern problem.
>> Gleaning is in the book of
Ruth in the old testament.
It goes back thousands of years.
People like, how did you come up
with this?
I really did not.
>> For pbs news weekend, I'm
Isabella in Providence, Rhode
Island.