Food & Climate
The war in Ukraine and the resulting price hikes have put a spotlight on food waste in America, especially around Thanksgiving.
Roughly a third of all food is lost or wasted from the U.S. food supply each year and, with its big holiday meal as the centerpiece, Thanksgiving can be one of the most wasteful days of the year, said experts, according to a report seen by “Food & Climate” platform.
“The food on your table is the result of many resources,” said Dr. Jean Buzby, liaison for food loss and waste at the United States Department of Agriculture. “Fresh water, energy, land and labor are used to create, process, transport, store, market and prepare that food”.
Food waste on Thanksgiving
About 200 million pounds of turkey are thrown out over the Thanksgiving holiday week, according to estimates from the Natural Resources Defense Council.
According to NRDC estimates, producing just one pound of turkey meat uses 520 gallons of water —the equivalent of seven bathtubs full of water. And greenhouse gas emissions from a pound of turkey are equivalent to those from burning a half gallon of gasoline.
“While no one sets out to be wasteful on Thanksgiving, nor throughout the year, people want to be celebratory and enjoy a special meal,” Natural Resources Defense Council expert Anya Obrez said.
But, how to minimize food waste while preparing for Thanksgiving?
Ahead of the holiday, the NRDC recommends figuring out exactly how much to prepare, according to “CBS News“.
The organization has a tool to help: people can plug in the number of guests and how much of an eater those guests are. The next step is selecting how many meals of leftovers you want and the type of meal being prepared. Types of food can also be added to your menu in the tool to get an estimate of how much to buy and cook.
It’s also important to make a grocery list, said Buzby. Research shows it can help shoppers avoid impulse buying.
“If your guests tend to have a lot left on their plates at the end of the meal, use smaller plates for serving,” she said. “That way, when guests pile food on their plates, the amount they’ve got is more closely aligned with what they will actually eat. If anyone is still hungry after the first pass, they can always go back for seconds —or thirds.”
Freezing food is like hitting a pause button; nearly anything can be frozen and rediscovered for a dark winter weeknight when you don’t have the energy to cook something from scratch,” Obrez said.
Sending food home with guests is also an option, as is making a donation.
Thanksgiving dinner is cheaper again
This is the second year in a row the price of the meal retreated from its 2022 high.
The average cost is $58.08 for 10 people, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) study, which dates back 39 years. The total price is down 5% from last year and is 4.5% lower than in 2022.
The survey’s cornucopia of goods includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. AFBF’s expanded menu — which also consists of boneless ham, russet potatoes, and frozen green beans — increases the overall cost by $19.26.
Despite the budget-friendly price tag, the dinner is still 19% higher than in 2019, illustrating how actual prices are still ruffling Americans’ feathers.
“We’ve had two back-to-back declines, but this isn’t quite enough to erase the dramatic increases that we saw,” Bernt Nelson, an AFBF economist, told Yahoo Finance. “And I think that speaks to inflation as a whole. We’re seeing inflation come down, but what’s key to remember is we’re measuring the rate of growth slowing.” “That doesn’t mean we’re going down in prices.”
The biggest factor carving down Thanksgiving meal costs is the turkey, the traditional centerpiece that makes up 44.2% of the 10-person dinner. This year, the price of a 16-pound bird didn’t just increase at a slower rate — it actually dropped 6% to $25.67, or $1.60 per pound, from $27.35, or $1.71 per pound, in 2023.
At first glance, you’d think prices would have taken flight this year because a widespread, years-long bird flu decimated the supply of the holiday fowl. The number of birds raised this year was at the lowest level since 1985. (The flu has also been responsible for the run-up in egg prices.).
But our appetite for the wattled bird has flagged even more this year. Per capita demand for turkey fell one pound to 13.9 pounds per person this year, the AFBF report said, citing US Department of Agriculture data.
The USDA report “doesn’t have a specific breakdown for lunch meat versus a frozen bird, so it’s a little tricky to see exactly where the demand is dropping off,” Nelson said.