More than 30 percent of the food we grow is wasted, left to rot in warehouses or tossed out by finicky consumers who decided they didn’t like the sauce on their pasta. In the US, 30 million acres of prime agricultural land is devoted to growing corn and soybeans to make fuel (mostly ethanol) for gas-guzzling cars and trucks. Aquifers are being pumped dry, often to grow water-hungry crops like rice and almonds and alfalfa in places where there is little or no surface water.
