True.We (as a culture) used to throw food away; times of abundance can do that to people if their values are not where they should. But what we used to do was nothing compared to what I saw in the states while I was in grad school. It was as if they were incapable of calculating correctly the amount of food needed for x number of people. At parties and get-togethers/cookouts I was always shocked at the amount of food that ended up in the dumpsters. Not even the pets benefited form it (they had plenty of pets food already).

We, foreigners always carried entire trays of salads, chicken, etc. because Americans would not overheat; a food from the day before, which was touched by other people (not even by their bare hands, that's for sure) was not good for the next day. I think of them every time I find people eating from the trash, and we are talking nasty maggot infested trash, and I see this every single day now.
Ironically, they don’t seem to get sick. If i don't wash the vegetables well enough, with vinegar, I get E.coli.