Wasted Food Equals Wasted Energy

My mother always taught me to be a member of the "clean your plate" club.  Most diet and nutrition experts, however, often encourage us not to feel obliged to eat everything put in front of us at the table.  Throwing away food may trigger our guilt about wasting something others in this world may not have enough of.  In truth, however, the health issues caused by our overeating probably result in even higher costs to our society.  Researchers at the University of Texas, though, are now telling us that American food waste represents the energy equivalent of 350 million barrels of oil.  That's enough to power the U.S. for a week.  In my simple mind, this complicates the dilemma even further.  Now I have to balance three categories of guilt (wasting nutritional resources, over-eating, and wasting energy).  In the bigger picture, however, this result indicates to me that, although Americans highly value convenience, even slightly more careful and better planned food shopping by consumers and small efficiency increases in our food production and supply chain could have a significant impact on our energy consumption.