Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 92% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Duncan: US produces 85% of its food domestically but wastes 30-50%

Storm Duncan · SPECIAL EPISODE – Introducing Invisible Forces Podcast · Aug 27, 2020 · at 11:03

Storm Duncan, Head of the Global Mobility Franchise at Jefferies, assesses US domestic supply chain resilience and food security.

0:00 / 0:11exact quote · 11.2s

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“So in the US, 85% of our food supply is produced within the country. And we waste a fair amount of food, too. The estimates on wasted food are somewhere around 30 to 50% of our food goes to waste.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

In the United States, 85% of the food supply is produced domestically and an estimated 30% to 50% of food is wasted.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Both legs of the claim are supported by official government and mainstream environmental research around 2020. First, both the FDA (in its 2019 Strategy for the Safety of Imported Food) and the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) state that the United States imports approximately 15% of its overall food supply (and 15% of consumer food spending), meaning approximately 85% is produced domestically. Second, the USDA and EPA officially estimate that 30% to 40% of the U.S. food supply is lost or wasted (with USDA ERS estimating 31% at the retail and consumer levels), while broader supply-chain studies and environmental groups (e.g., NRDC, academic lifecycle assessments) estimate total food loss and waste between 30% and 50%.

FDA Strategy for the Safety of Imported Food (2019) confirmed the U.S. imports roughly 15% of its overall food supply, establishing an ~85% domestic production share.
USDA ERS Food Dollar Series shows imports represent approximately 15% of food expenditures, leaving 85% produced domestically.
USDA and EPA official baselines estimate U.S. food loss and waste at 30% to 40% (grounded in Buzby et al., 2014 finding 31% loss), with broader full-chain and academic estimates reaching up to 50%.

Checked against

[1] fda.gov [2] usda.gov [3] massmarketretailers.com [4] statista.com [5] usda.gov [6] epa.gov [7] nrdc.org [8] cbsnews.com

"30-50%" food waste United States OR America USDA percent of US food supply imported 15 percent FDA USDA percent of food supply imported domestically produced United States USDA food waste percentage 30 to 40 percent 30 to 50 percent "30 to 50" percent food wasted US OR "United States" "40 percent of food" "food waste" USDA EPA NRDC

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

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Storm Duncan Aug 27, 2020 ▶ 10:04 SPECIAL EPISODE – Introducing Invisible Forces Podcast

Duncan: US produces 85% of its food domestically but wastes 30-50%

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