[Watch] John Oliver slams the United States for wasting food

From his take on inhumane chicken farming to the fast fashion industry, the gender wage gap, and of course, this.

I welcome every new video of his with open arms, and more importantly, ears. Oliver's recap last week focused on food wastage in the United States. Culturally, Australia often looks up to the States the way children replicate the behaviour of their best friend's cool older brother.

While the facts presented in the video pertain to The U.S, it's worth thinking about them through the lens of Australian consumption too. Especially since Australians throw out 8 billion dollars worth of food every year, with each household binning 345 kilos of unused products. This is equal to a cool $1,036 you could have had in the bank.

It's estimated that 20% of the food we purchase is wasted, for The States this figure is doubled. The sheer volume of this is disturbing. Especially in relation to the fact that 2 million people rely on food relief in Australia each year.

However, it's also important to envisage the decomposing vegetables en masse, producing huge amounts of methane gas, which, over a five-year period, traps 100 times the amount of heat in the atmosphere than c02.

Get the low down here:

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