Here is a disconcerting factoid: The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 30 percent of the United States food supply ends up as waste—about 133 billion pounds of it. That goes to landfills instead of hungry families while the resources that produced it could have been used for something else.
Of course, food waste is an issue virtually everywhere. In Belgium, for example, they produce and consume a lot of bread (and their bakeries are as good or better than the ones found in France, for whatever that’s worth). It’s the most common breakfast food there and accompanies most other meals, too. By one estimate, the Belgians eat about 500,000 metric tons of bread per year.
However, they like it fresh. Inevitably, many tons of loaves from supermarkets and bakeries end up tossed out.