According to the United States Department of Agriculture estimate, how much food did Americans waste in 2010?

The Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture estimated that, in 2010, America wasted between 30 and 40 percent of its food supply. The USDA estimated that food wasted by consumers and retail entities accounted for 31 percent, and calculated that the loss was of 133 billion pounds, worth nearly $162 billion.

The impact on the United States only centers on the incredible amount of edible food that is thrown away rather than used to feed hungry people. Also wasted are the resources used to produce that food—including water, seed, fertilizer, land use, labor, and energy—the time, effort, and money that go into transportation, storage, and preparation of food, and the money it takes to remove the food from stores and storage systems, truck it to landfills, and dispose of it.

No other category of waste clogging municipal landfills is as large as wasted food. Once buried, food releases methane gas, fast and in large quantities. Rotting food in landfills is the third-largest source of methane in the nation.