food waste

i can see the difference of grocery prices rising every time i go to the grocery store. i hear the complaints of non profits that their clients are having a hard time feeding their families because of the rising prices. besides seeming ridiculous to me since we seem to always have an abundance of food everywhere, i find it so pathetic that in our country this is a real problem. we consume so much more food than most other countries, our restaurants serve huge portions and our grocery stores have mounds of fresh fruit and produce available. here is one of the problems evidently. our grocery store waste costs 48 billion dollars every year. that cost has to be absorbed by someone and now it is starting to catch up with us. we are now wasting between one quarter and half of the food we produce in this country. isn't there something wrong with this? in britain they are now retraining people to use their leftovers, to grow their own food and to buy only what they are actually going to eat because not only are their food prices going up but food supplies in the world are running out, quickly. the government is going to start putting restrictions akin to the world war two restrictions on food purchases and consumption. are we heading in that direction here? maybe we can cut back on our waste, and talk to our grocery stores about theirs???? 

are we seeing a pattern here regarding our approach to our resources?