John Oliver thinks Americans should be ashamed of themselves. The British comedian and host of HBO's late night satirical news talk show "Last Week Tonight" blasted Americans for the amount of food they waste in a year on Sunday, The Huffington Post reported.
"Food waste is like the band Rascal Flats," Oliver said. "It can fill a surprising number of stadiums even though many people consider it complete garbage. Between producers, sellers and consumers, Americans are throwing out a third or more of our food and the amount we throw out has increased by around 50% since the 1970s."
In the segment, he cited a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council that stated up to 40 percent of all the food produced in the United States doesn't get consumed. Instead, Americans throw away $165 billion worth of food a year. That amount equals to about 20 pounds of food per person every month, or enough to fill 730 football stadiums, according to Oliver's segment.
The late night host cracked jokes throughout his bit, but he also backed up his rant with footage from a food waste dump in Salinas Valley, Calif. that was filled with organic produce, including healthy greens like kale, broccoli and spinach. A majority of the "waste" that looked perfectly fine and consumable.
Oliver explained that food waste has various consequences. First and foremost, there are people and families in America who need the food that gets thrown away. Second, Oliver said, is the waste of labor and natural resources that go into producing the food. But the least-known consequence of food waste is the amount of methane produce emits when it sits in a landfill. The greenhouse gas is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat.
See Oliver's full rant below.
