By some estimates, about 2 billion tons of food, about 50 percent of all the food produced on the planet, is wasted before it ever reaches a human stomach.

That's bad, but science, like apples and potatoes that look more appealing for a longer time, can fix some of that, while better pesticides and scientific optimization can improve yields at the agriculture stage, if environmentalists would stop terrorizing people about food.

Yet a survey by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation finds something more worrisome now; many Americans are shockingly unaware of their own roles in contributing to the problem,.

Thirty percent of Americans believe that they "don't create any food waste" while among those who concede they do, the top causes include forgetting about perishable food until it's too late (19 percent), purchasing too much fresh or perishable food (17 percent), cooking big meals and throwing some of it away (8 percent), and not eating everything they put on their plate (7 percent).

More than half of Americans report that they taking leftovers home from restaurants (58 percent), using leftovers from cooking (53 percent), planning their meals (51 percent), and making shopping lists (51 percent), while 47 percent say they use or freeze leftovers in a timely manner.

Source: http://www.foodinsight.org/sites/default/files/2016-Food-and-Health-Surv...